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4 




ROYiUL VIC TORIA HOT EL NASSAU 

With Meteorolo$icat Tables and other Sfafistics 
Merestini to invalids and Travelers 




— -"^^ 




^ 




^ 




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'V' 



NASSAU, 

Island of New Providence, 



BAHAMAS. 



A GUIDE TO 



The Sanitarium of tlie Western Heniispliere, 

ITS ATTRACTIONS, 

AND 

HOW TO GET THERE; 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, METEOROLOGICAL TABLES, 

AND OTHER STATISTICS OF INTEREST TO 

INVALIDS AND TRAVELERS ; 

INCLUDING 




"An Isle of June." 



REPUBLISHED FROM 




Scribner's Monthly for November, 1877. 



ISSUED BY THE 



N™ YORK, NASSAU AND WEST INDiA MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE, 
'/^SAVANNAH; NASSAU AND HAVANA MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE; 

(Via St. Au'gustine, Florida ;) 
AND THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOTEL OF NASSAU, N- P. 



MURRAY, FERRIS & CO., 62 South Street, N. Y., 

Agents for the Steamship Lines. 




ROUTE OP THE 
ANNAH, ST.AUGUSTINE, 
NASSAU & HAVANA 
MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE. 



ATLANTIC 



C E A N 



V e rg L a d e s V S\\ii / //" "^ J' I >l ^ 



1 V''i I U Abaco 

\ I ;,^_ "■"■ 

( 1 E V e rgj. a d e s V ^f ^^^ ^' Z/" ' « 7^/ ? 

\ ^ > "Miami Al/lAr//'^^/ if r^X •/ O' 



/LnUTHEKA 




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6'i';<:'5^4./ 



NASSAU. N. P. 



B^HA.]MA^S. 



'The air breathes upon us here most sweetly P 



The Sanitarium of the Western Hemisphere. 



TO THOSE WHO DESIRE HEALTH, LONG LIFE AND PLEASURE, THE FOLLOWING 
' DESCRIPTION OF THE FINEST AND MOST EQUABLE WINTER CLIMATE IN 
THE WORLD— LOVELY SCENERY! SPLENDId'^YACHTING ! FINE SEA BATH- 
ING! CHARMING DRIVES! &c., &c., &c.— IS COMMENDED:— 



The History of the Bahamas began in 
1492, when Columbus, the great pioneer, 
navigator and discoverer of a new world, 
landed on the shore of Guanahani, and 
named it "St. Salvador." Commerce did 
not immediately follow in the wake of dis- 
covery, but about two hundred and fifty 
years after that event Pine Apples were 
grown at and exported from Eleuthera; 
and fifty years later cotton was extensively 
cultivated, and Salt and Wood added to 
the exports. At the present time the col- 
ony's staples are Salt, Fruit, Sponge, Barks, 
Dye and Furniture Woods, Guano and 
Straw, Turtle Shell, Fish Scale, and Shell 
Work. The articles on exhibition at the 
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia fair- 
ly represented the productions and manu- 
factures of the Islands, and both might be 
indefinitely extended. But it is not the 
commercial resources of the " Bahamas " 
only which should make a knowledge of 
them general. 

Their equability and wonderful salubrity 
of climate commend them to all who seek 
a genial, healthy, life-giving atmosphere. 
As a winter home for the afflicted, Peter 
Henry Bruce wrote, nearly a century and 
a half ago, " It is no wonder the sick fly 
hither for relief, being sure to find a cure 
here." Modern travelers also testify that 
as a resort from damp and cold to sunshine 



and summer, for those who require change 
and climatic benefit, the Bahamas offer 
peculiar advantages. The heat is tempered 
by an ocean breeze of softness and purity 
seldom experienced elsewhere. Tropical 
flowers gladden the eye, and the luscious 
pine-apple, orange, pomegranate and melon 
tempt the palate with their freshness and 
beauty. Fish abound in the clear pellucid 
waters surrounding these Islands^ and the 
northern fowl seek a home on the lakes. 
In a word, the Bahamas seem by nature 
fitted as a grand sanitarium for the afflicted 
from the North American Continent, and 
as a most desirable winter resort for all 
who wish to escape the rigors of a Northern 
season. 

New Providence is the most important 
of the Bahamas group ; Nassau, its chief 
and only town, was settled by Euroj^eans' 
in 1629, since which time it has been the 
seat of government. It is situated in north 
latitude 25° 5', and west longitude 77° 20', 
covering an area of 85 square miles, with a 
population of about 12,000. Its history is 
full of interest to the student, but limited 
space and a desire to place before the reader 
important facts regarding it as a winter re- 
sort, compel us to ignore the claims of both 
history and romance. 

The City of Nassau is built on the north- 
ern side of the Island, which slopes down 



NASSAU, N. P. 



to the water's edge, affording sure and per- 
fect drainage. It extends along the water- 
front for about three miles and back to the 
crest of the slope, on which stands the 
Government House, the Royal Victoria 
Hotel, and many of the finest private resi- 
dences, at an elevation of about 90 feet 
from the waters of the harbor. The streets 
are laid out at right angles with each other, 
and are uniformly macadamized, as are 
also the drives around the Island. The 
houses are, for the most part, built of 
stone, and the grounds surrounding them 
are ornamented with flowers and trees. 
The City has a fine public library of over 



supply fish in abundance, unrivaled for 
beauty and size. 

The Royal Victoria Hotel was built by 
the Government in i860, to meet the de- 
mands of invalids and others seeking to 
avail themselves of the peculiar advantages 
offered by Nassau for a winter residence, 
and neither pains nor expense was spared 
in answering the requirements of the most 
modern and scientific theories of archi- 
tecture. 

The building is of limestone, four stories 
high ; each of the three first stories being 
surrounded by a piazza ten feet wide, 
forming an uninterrupted promenade of 




STREET IN NASSAU. 



six thousand volumes. Nassau has as much 
right to be called "the City of Churches " 
as our own Brooklyn. All creeds find 
themselves at home in the services of the 
various churches and chapels. 

Tiic drives are not to be excelled — the 
roads being equal to the best; the scenery, 
both seaward and inland, is varied and 
beautiful, and the harbor and neighboring 
waters afford at once a safe and extensive 
boating ground ; while the shores are cov- 
ered with marine treasures in the form of 
shells and corals. In the interior and on 
the out Islands game rewards the labors of 
the sjiortsman ; while the adjacent waters 



over one thousand feet in extent — affording 
to those unable to withstand the fatigue of 
out-door exercise perfect facilities for en- 
joying the fine scenery and refreshing 
breezes. The rooms are large and per- 
fectly ventilated; those of the first, second 
and third stories being provided with 
French casements, opening on the piazza, 
and each door and window having a fan- 
light. The house is provided with bath- 
rooms and other modern improvements. 
The' tanks for rain water exceed 300,000 
gallons in capacity; while spring water is 
forced through the building from a fine 
well on the premises. The parlors are 



NASSAU, N. P. 



large and conveniently situated. The din- 
ing room will seat one hundred and fifty- 
persons comfortably. Sea-bathing is con- 
veniently near the house, and salt water 
baths, either in the bathing-rooms or pri- 
vate apartments, can be furnished at all 
times. 

The hotel has recently changed hands, 
the present proprietors being Messrs. Mel- 
len, Conover and King. Mr. A. L. Mellen, 
and the Superintendent, Mr. H. L. Hoyt, 
have been for the past two years connected 
with the Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga 
Springs. 

Mr. A. H. King, of this firm, can be con- 
sulted as to particulars during the entire 
season, at 115 Broadway, New York, where 
plans of the house can be seen and rooms 
engaged. 

After an experience of several years, the 
following mail and passenger service has 
been arranged as best suited to the require- 
ments of Nassau as a winter sanitarium 
and pleasure resort : 

A first-class steamer, with ample passen- 
ger accommodations, will be despatched 
monthly, throughout the year, from New 
York direct to Nassau, and from thence to 
Santiago and Cienfuegos on the south side 
of Cuba, returning to Nassau and thence 
to New York direct. 

^During the winter season a first-class 
steamer, specially adapted to the carriage of 
passengers, will be run between Savannah, 
Ga. ; St. Augustine, Fla. ; Nassau and Ha- 
vana, leaving Savannah every two weeks, 
thus forming the most delightful winter 
excursion ever offered in American waters, 
combining Florida, Nassau and Havana, 
with their varied scenes of tropical life. 

One of the most charming incidents of 
this trip is the opportunity of taking St. 
Augustine in the direct route, either by 
making it the point of departure or stopping 
over a trip on the arrival of the steamer 
from Savannah, and seeing the rare old 
town, with its many balconied houses; its 
semi-tropical trees and foliage; its long 
sea-wall, the pride of St. Augustine; its 
grand old fort "San Marco," standing as 
it has stood for three hundred years, with 
its moat, its mossy walls, and its outlook 
towers. 

Verily it is a temptation to make the 
trip, and for a few hours at least, while 
the steamer waits, imagine yourself a 
Spaniard of the sixteenth century. 

Close connections are made at Savannah 



with the new and elegant steamships of 
the New York and Savannah Line, both to 
and from New York, and by railroad with 
all parts of the country. 

For further particulars as to routes, &c., 
consult the Itinerary at the end of this 
pamphlet. 

The trip from Savannah to St. Augustine 
is made in about twelve hours, and from 
St. Augustine to Nassau in about thirty 
hours, following the coast line from Savan- 
nah River nearly south to St. Augustine and 
Cape Florida, then crossing the Gulf 
Stream, occupying about five hours, and 
thence,with Bahama Banks on the right, and 
the Islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco on 
the left hand, a pleasant run of a few hours 
brings the ship into the harbor of Nassau. 

For the accommodation of visitors to 
the Island, arrangements have been made 
by which telegraphic communications may 
be forwarded to all parts of the country on 
the arrival of the steamer in St. Augustine 
or Savannah, and answers received will be 
brought over by the steamer on her return 
trip, thus bringing sojourners on the Island 
almost within telegraphic communication 
with their own homes. 

A reference to the subjoined table, com- 
piled by Surgeon General Bagot, R. A., 
Avill show the mean temperature at Nassau, 
during the winter months, for ten years : 

THERMOMETER AT 9 A. M. 

November 74° February 71° 

December. . .... .73° Marcli. .' 72° 

January 70° April 75° 

General James Watson Webb, in writ- 
ing of Nassau in 1870, says : 

" Madeira is tlie great Sanitarium of Europe, 
and until lately was considered to be without a 
riva,l tlirougliout the world. Recently, however, 
Nassau has not only been proved to be superior 
to all other localities as a Sanitarium in the New 
World, but superior also to Madeira itself. From 
the first November to the first June, there is not, 
in all prohahility, any spot on the face of the earth 
so desirable for persons suffering from pulnionary 
complaints. 

" Such are the facts of the, case in regard to the 
climate of Nassau; and extraordinary as they are, 
when compared with other places on the globe 
noted for their salubrity, there are great natural 
causes, visible and apparent to all, why it should 
be found free from frost, although in Lat. 25° 05' 
North; and at the same time boasts all the bene- 
fits of the Tropics, with a warm summer climate, 
equable as man can desire. Those causes consist 
in the very peculiar and remarkable position of 
the Island. Look at the map, and you will at 
once perceive that on the South it is bounded by 
the South Atlantic, and the warm waters which 
constitute that mighty arm of the ocean — the 



IVASSAU, N. P. 



Gulf Stream. On the West, that great wonder 
of the ocean separates it from the continent of 
America, and again protects Nassau on the North, 
and modifies all the cold winds of the continent 
into gentle zepli_vrs by the time they reach New 
Providence: and on the East we are open to the 
broad Atlantic, which in Lat. 25'^ never emits 
any amount of cold which the invalid may not 
safely inhale." 

A -writer from Nassau to the Albany Even- 
ing Jouf/ial, under the nom-de-pliime of 
"V. Q.," also says: 

" We luxuriated in a soft balmy atmosphere 
of seventy-four degrees, and could but feel that 
there was health in every breath. 

"All the ordinary tropical fruits abound in great 
perfection, and are had for little more than the 
gathering. The senses are rapt by the novelty of 
the surroundings, the suddenness and entirety of 
the change. In a less distance from New York 
than Chicago, the transformation is perfect; not 
a shrub or tree is seen which surrounds alike both 
those i)laces; not any other dress than a light 
and summer toilet." 

Governor Rawson, in his report upon 
the Bahamas, says : 

" The reputation of New Providence for salu- 
brity and the charms of its climate has been long 
established, and has annually attracted to Nassau 
numbers of invalids from the United States and 
"British North American Provinces." 

Governor Robinson, in his report to the 
British Government on the Colonial Sec- 
tion, at the Vienna Exhibition, 1S73, says 
of the Bahamas : 

" Lying as they do in one of thfe most serene, 
genial, and delightful climates of the world, and 
yiidding by cultivation most of the vegetable pro- 
ductions of the temperate as well as the torrid 
zone, it might seem strange that the Bahamas 
have not hitherto become generally settled. Nas- 
sau, liowever, has become, for many years past, 
a winter resort for those seeking to escape from 
the rigors of a Northern to a milder Southern 
clime. Many eminent American Physicians 
strongly recommend such of their patients as 
may be suffering from or threatened with pulmo- 
nary disease to jjroceed to Nassau for the winter, 
in consequence of the mildness and equability of 
the tcmjjerature. With a view to attract such a 
class of visitors, a very commodious hotel, l)uilt 
on the American ]ilun, was erected at the (!Xi)ense 
of the Government. Tiie lessees of tlm hotel, 
Americans, an; bound to conduct it like a first- 
clasB New Yorlc liotel. Ample and good accom- 
modation lias tlieref<jre b(!en ])rovide(l. Besides 
there are several excellent boarding-houses. 

Frost is positively unknown, and a glance 
at the following carefully prepared tables 
will demonstrate the equable character of 
the climate : 





THERMOMETER. 


TIME. 








-« 9 m 


. rn%. 







< 





Hi 




■as? 
sss 


33 5'SS 
Ago 


NOVEMBER : 














G A. M. . 


73^ 


77K 


71 


4 








12 M. . . . 


77k' 


81 


73 


7 


7 





6 P. M. . 


76 Vf 


79 


72 


7 








12 " .. 


75 


77 


72 


4 








DECEMBER : 














6 A. M. . 


72% 


75 


66 


6 





1 


12 M. . . . 


75 


81 


68 


11 








6 P. M. . 


73% 


77 


07 


8 





1 


12 " .. 


74 


78 


68 


8 








JANUARY : 














6 A. M. . 


70i< 


76 


64 


9 





8 


12 M . . . . 


72 


78 


63 


9 





5 


12 P. M. . 


70 


78 


04 


9 





9 


6 " .. 


70 


77 


04 


12 





8 


FEBRUARY : 














6 A. M. . 


70 


76 


64 


6 





7 


12 M. . . . 


72 


78 


67 


8 





5 


6 " .. 


711^ 


78 


64 


8 





5 


12 p. M. . 


71 


76 


64 


9 





6 


MARCH : 














6 A. M. . 


73 


78 


64 


9 





4 


12 M. . . . 


76 


82 


66 


8 


9 


1 


p. M. . 


751^ 


80 


66 


8 





1 


12 " .. 


73K 


78 


65 


8 





2 


APRIL : 














G A. M. . 


77 


80 


74 


4 


5 





12 M. . . . 


79 


82 


75 


4 


24 





G P. M. . 


78i< 


82 


73 


7 


19 





12 " .. 


77 


80 


73 


5 


4 





MAY 1 TO 11. 












--* 


G A. M. . 


75 


82 


72 


3 


2 





12 M. . . 


70 


82 


73 


5 


1 





6 " .. 


75 


80 


73 


5 


1 





12 p. M. . 


74 


80 


73 


5 


1 






Surgeon-Major Bagot, R. A., gives the 
following comparative table of tempera- 
tures : 

Winter. 

Funchal 03°50' 

Halifax, N. S 21 

New York 30 12 

Nas.yau 70 67 

Nice 40 33 

Algiers 52 32 

Cairo 58 52 

•" Jackson ville,Fla. 55 02 
*Froui report of Dr. A. S. Baldwin, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Staff Assistant-Surgeon Segrave, R. A., 
in charge of the meteorological observa- 
tions at Nassau, gives the mean degree of 
humidity as follows : 



Spring. 


Summer.Autumn . 


64"46' 


71^60' 


70-^88' 


31 07 


71 


40 07 


52 OG 


70 93 


53 20 


77 07 


86 


80 33 


55 02 


71 83 


01 53 


60 46 


74 41 


07 87 


73 58 


85 10 


71 48 


63 88 


81 93 


63 54 



January 76*^ 

Fehnuuv 83 

March .". .73 8' 

April 04 7 

May 71 

June 61 



July 66°3' 

August 72 

September 73 

October 81 3 

November 77 7 

December 83 



Average 73°3' 



NASSAU, N. P. 



From these observations, two important 
deductions will be made : First, that the 
average temperature, from November to 
May inclusive, is exactly that at which out- 
door and in-door life are best combined — 
.always above that at which artificial heat 
becomes necessary ; and always below that 
at which exercise becomes exhausting. Sec- 
ond, that the variation between extreme 
limits of temperature is comparatively 
small, and that these limits are those within 
which any variation is of the least possible 
importance to the health or comfort of the 
individual. Moreover, the mean baromet- 
rical standard indicates a light or rarified 
atmosphere, and the average rain-fall for a 
series of years, during the season of resort, 
demonstrates one of unusual dryness. If, 
then, the climate desideratum for invalids 
suffering from pulmonary diseases is, as 
indicated by medical authorities, " a dry, 
rarified atmosphere at equable tempera- 
ture," the Climate of Nassau fulfills the 
indication not only in an unequaled, but 
also in a marvelously perfect degree. How 
perfect, will become evident by comparing 
it with Madeira, South of France, or South- 
ern United States of the Atlantic coast. 

The above tables, representing as they 
do the average temperature of morning, 
noon, evening, and midnight, with highest 
and lowest markings of the thermometer 
during each month, and the greatest change 
in any one period of twenty-four hours, fur- 
nish valuable data from which to derive an 
idea of the temperature of these islands. 
To make the tables even more complete, 
there is added the number of times each 
month the mercury rose above 78 degrees 
or fell below 68 degrees. We doubt not 
that these thermometric results will be of 
interest to the majority of our readers ; 
they certainly will be to those having pa- 
tients for whom they are seeking a milder 
climate. 

To sum up the advantages offered by 
Nassau: We find a place where the inva- 
lid (after a short sea voyage) may enjoy 
the finest and most equable climate in the 
world, during the winter months, absolutely 
free from all danger of epidemic disease, 
hurricanes, earthquakes and other dangers 
and disadvantages usually incident to trop- 
ical countries, good society, fine educa- 
tional and religious privileges, the use of a 
choice library, medical talent of the high- 
est order, recreations of varied and health- 
ful character. 



By special permission, reference is made 
to the following named gentlemen : 

Dr. ALONZO CLARK, Now Yurk, 

Dr. WILLARD PARKER, 

Dr. JOHN T. METCAI.F, 

Dr. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, " 

Dr. T. GAYLORD THOMAH, 

Dr. WILLIAM KIRKWOOD, Florence, Italy. 

Dr. W. F. HUTCHINSON, rroviclenoe, R. I. 

Dr. EDWARD P. FOWLER, New York. 

Dr. JAMES R. WOOD, 

Dr. FORDYGE BARKER, 

Dr. ERASTUS E. MARCV, 

Dr. JOHN J. CRANE, 

Dr. AUSTIN FLINT, 

Dr. P. A. CASTLE, 

Dr. JAMES P. WHITE, Buffalo, N. Y. 

The Royal Victoria Hotel opens an- 
nually the first of November, and closes 
the fifteenth of May. Neither pains nor ex- 
pense will be spared to give entire satis- 
faction to those who either from necessity 
or fancy may choose to spend a winter in 
the tropics. The table will be provided 
with the very best imported and native 
supplies, and the attendance will be prompt 
and willing. 

Terms at the hotel three dollars per day, 
U. S. currency. Visitors will find letters 
of credit, certificates of deposit, U. S. gold 
notes or coin the more convenient form of 
funds. Letters of credit or drafts on Nas- 
sau can be procured of the agents of the 
steamship line at par. 

A schedule is issued monthly, giving the 
exact date of sailing of steamers, from New 
York, Savannah, and St. Augustine ; also, 
the rates of passage from different points, 
including excursion tickets. This may be 
had on application to Murray, Ferris & 
Co., 62 South Street, New York, the agents 
of the New York, Nassau and West India 
Mail Steamship Line., and the Savannah, 
Nassau and Havana Mail Steamship Line, 
who will mail guide-books and furnish all 
information upon application. 

Attention is particularly called to the 
appendix on the following pages, contain- 
ing an article on' Nassau, which appeared 
in Scribners Monthly for November, 1877, 
from the pen of Mr. Frank R. Stockton, 
illustrated by Thomas Moran, L. Hopkins, 
Sol. Eytinge, Jr., and others, under the 
title of "An Isle of June; " "Nassau as a 
Resort for Nerve Invalids," by Wm. F. 
Hutchinson, A. M., M. D., of Providence, 
R. I., late of the U. S- Naval Service ; 
extracts from editorials from the Medical 
Record and Neiv. Remedies; letters from 
Hon. C. L. MacArthur to the Troy Budget; 
Epes Sargent ; Rev. Nelson Millard to the 
New York Evangelist ; Dr. Wm. Kirkwood, 
of Florence, Italy, &c., &c. 



NASSAU, N. P. 



APPENDIX. 



AN EXTRACT FEOM 

"NASSAU AS A RESORT FOR NERVE 

INVALIDS." 

By WILLIAJI T. HUTCHINSON, AM.,M.D., 

PROVIDENCE, E. I. 

Specialists in diseases of the nervous system 
have long been seeking for some locality whither 
they may direct the steps of those fortunate ones 
amongst their patients whose means will allow 
them to follow their physicians' advice, and give 
a few months' rest to the active brain and over- 
worked mind. 

It is certain that diseases of this class are more 
widely spread than ever before in this country, 
and equally certain that all forms of medication 
utterly fail after the most alarming symptoms — 
paralysis or delirium — make their appearance. 

Improved forms of diagnosis have, however, 
enabled the expert to foresee such terminations 
to apparently trifling groups of signs — and see- 
ing, to arrest progress by promptly removing the 
cause. In a vast majority, this cause resides in 
an over-strain; and if the organs have not already 
given way under it, relaxation is the cure. But 
what form must it take ? 

Rest — rest — rest. Rest of body and mind — 
rest of brain and muscle. Rest undisturbed by 
business or politics — by family cares or rumors 
of wars — rest seconded and intensified by sensu- 
ous quiet, by lovely scenery, by June-lilie tem- 
perature, and by all that is as nearly as possible 
the exact autipode of the patient's usual sur- 
roundings. 

It has been my custom, for several years, to 
select from my list a lialf dozen who most need 
change, and leaving this inhospitable climate 
about the first of March, cruise leisurely down 
towards the spring that comes so tardily hither- 
ward, looking for some place which should com- 
bine the necessary requisites for busy merchant, 
or eager, anxious literary man. It must have 
invariable sunshine, equable temperature, ac- 
cessibility, comfortable and reasonable lodgings, 
sufiicieut occupation free from excitement of any 
kind, and small means of communication with 
home. 

It would almost seem Utopian to look for all 
these requisites in one spot; but perseverance 
does wonders, and last spring, as we sailed out 
of the harbor of Nassau, it was with many a 
regret that we could not carry its charming en- 
vironment with us. My patients were well. 



Anxiously bent brows, aching heads and limbs 
halting speech and unstable memory, had all dis- 
appeared ; they had been swept into the past by 
the balmy trade wind that had woven its spell 
around us on the lovely island. "Mens sano in 
cor pore sano" was once more the condition of 
my invalids, and thankfully did they sound the 
praises of the land which had given them a new 
lease of existence. 

Since that visit, I have been satisfied that, as 
a resort for patients of this class, none can ap- 
proach in needful qualifications, Nassau. 

It is sufficiently inaccessible to protect them 
from the daily mail nuisance or the sharper sting 
of the telegraph, while but twenty-four hours 
distant from an American city. It has a fine 
hotel, with several excellent boarding-houses, 
where all may be suited as to cuisine and price. 
It has the loveliest walks, drives, sailing and 
fishing grounds that exist. It has a temperature 
so unvarying that during our whole stay the 
utmost change was three degrees Fahrenheit in 
a day, the maximum for three weeks being 71", 
and the minimum 68°. 

It has eternal winter sunshine, and, finally, its 
excitement is of the mild innocuous kind that 
grows wild over a new shell or flower, or the ad- 
vent of Sunday and church. I cannot recommend 
in too strong language Nassau for invalids whose 
tired, worn-out nervous system demands rest as 
the primary element of cure, and shall look no 
further for a haven for clients of this class who 
come to me for advice. 

Its medical men are courteous, well-trained 
and skillful, in whose hands no practitioner need 
fear to leave his cases. They hold both English 
and American diplomas, and are entirely trust- 
worthy. 



Dr. KiRKWOOD writes as follows : 

New York, July 22d, 1876.— * * * l have 
had a long experience both as a physician and an 
invalid ; in the latter character, fortunately, only 
from the first year of my residence; but in the 
first capacity nearly 28 years, namely, from 1844 
to 1872; and the result of this experience has in- 
duced me to believe that the climate of Nassau, 
during the winter months, is superior to any 
winter resorts for pulmonary invalids which I 
have visited as yet, and that compete with prin- 
cipal resorts in Italy and the South of France, in 
which I have spent the last four years. 
Very truly yours, 

W. KiRKWOOD, M. D., Florence, Italy. 



ScRiBNER's Monthly. 



NOVEMBER, 1877. 



AN ISLE OF JUNE, 




NASSAU HARBOR, FROM HOG ISLAND. 



It was on a cold, rainy morning in Feb- 
ruary that we left Savannah on the steamer 
for Nassau. We steamed through the yel- 
low waters of the Savannah River and over 



the bar at its mouth, and soon were fairly 
out at sea, where the long, even swells took 
our vessel gently in their arms and rolled 
her slowly from side to side as if they were 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



trying to put her to sleep. Those of the 
passengers who remained on deck wore 
overcoats or other wraps, and did not find 
it very convenient to do much promenading. 
However, the hght of hope was burning in 
every eye, and by sunrise next morning we 
found ourselves off St. Augustine, Florida, 
with the rolling swell changed to short, chop- 
ping waves, whicli suited some persons bet- 
ter and other persons not so well. 



stronger. It seemed as if we had suddenly 
sailed into early June, or the latter part of 
May. The sea was smooth, the air was 
mild, the skies were lovely. Everybody 
was on deck. 

Off came our overcoats. It was no longer 
winter ! 

These ever-summer seas were lovely. Out 
of the waves rose the flying-fish, skimming 
in flocks through the air, and dropping down 




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MKMORANRIFM MAr OF TIIF. ROUTE TO THE BAHAMAS. 



AVc .sailed over the bar and anchored 
in front of the town. The disposition to get 
off for an hour or two was very strong, 
but our cajjtain gave us no time fijr landing. 
He took on the i)assengcr.s wlio stood ckis- 
tered on the wharf, Jioisted anchor and was 
over the bar again before the tide fell. 

^V'e kept on down tlie Florida coast until 
the next ni(jrning, when we turned eastward 
into the (]ulf Stream. And now the hope 
on every countenance grew brighter and 



again just as we were beginning to believe 
they were birds ; the porpoises leaped and 
darted by the vessel's side, and every now 
and then we passed a nautilus, cruising along 
in his six-inch sliell, with his transparent sail 
wide-spread and sparkling in the sun. 

Early in the afternoon of this delightful 
day we descried, far in the distance, a speck 
on the horizon, and were told that this was 
land — a part of the Great Bahama Island; 
and as we drew nearer and nearer we saw 



^ AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



a little tuft in the air and a little thread 
beneath it, connecting it with the land ; and 
the tuft and the thread were a cocoa-nut 
tree! 

We were journeying to find a pleasant 
winter climate, — one that could be depended 
upon. We knew of very commendable semi- 
tropical resorts — Florida for instance; but 
among the northern visitors to Florida that 
year had been frost and ice. We could get 
all we needed of such things at home, and 
so we had agreed to postpone, until later in 
the season, our trip to the state of flowers 
and alligators, and in our search for the 
happy land we longed for, to do as Columbus 
did, and begin at the beginning. First to the 
Bahamas came he, and thither would we 
go too. These islands might be called the 
first chapter of America ; we would turn back 
and see how our continent opened to the 
eyes of the venturesome Genoese. 

And here we were. True, that distant 
island was not San Salvador, but it was all 
in the family. 

Through the whole afternoon we cruised 
down the shores of the Great Bahama, and 
then left it and went southward toward New 
Providence. Early in the morning, from 
my open port, I heard voices coming from 
the water, and the thumping of oars. I 
hastily looked out, and there was Nassau. 
We were almost at the wharf. A long boat, 
full of negroes, was carrying a line to the 
shore. 

I hurried on deck and looking over the rai'l 
saw to my astonishment that we were float- 
ing in water not more than a foot deep ! This 
great ship, with her engines, her cargo, her 
crew and passengers, was slowly moving along 




THE FIRST CHAPTER OF AMERICA. 

in water not up to your knees ! The bottom 
was clearly visible — every stone on it could 
be seen as you see stones at the bottom of 
a little brook. I could not understand it. 

" How deep is this water .? " I asked of a 
sailor. 

" About three fathom," he answered. 

I had heard, but had not remembered, 
that the waters around Nassau, especially 
when you looked down upon them from a 
height, were almost transparent, but the 
explanation did not make the sight any less 
wonderful. As to the color of the water, I 
had heard nothing about that. This water 
was of an apple-green or pea-green tint, — as 
charming as the first foliage of spring. 

The town — a very white town — stretched 
before us ^r a mile or two along its water- 
front, and seemed to be a busy place, for 





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THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOTEL, NASSAU. 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



there were many vessels, large and small 
(principally the latter), moored at the piers; 
there were store-houses on the street by the 



land called Hog Island. In spite of its 
name this island is a very ornamental and 
useful one, for it acts as a breakwater, and 




VIEW DOWN GEORGE STREET, NASSAU. — LOOKING FROM GOVERNMENT HOUSE. 
[cathedral ON THE RIGHT, VENDUE HOUSE AT END OF STREET, HOG ISLAND IN THE DISTANCE.] 



water; there was a crowd of people on the 
wharf; there were one-horse barouches, 
driven by negroes wearing red vests and 
dreadfully battered high silk hats, and alto- 
gether the scene was lively and promising. 

The town was larger than I had exjiected 
to see it, but it ought to be a good-sized 
place, for nearly all of the people of the 
island of New Providence live there, and 
they number some eleven or twelve thou- 
sand. Columbus named this island Fer- 
nandina, which was a good name, — but the 
poor man Jiever had much luck in christen- 
ing the lands he discovered. 

The town is certainly very well placed — 
all the passengers agreed to that. It lies on 

the northern edge of Ferna of New 

Providence, and in front of it, less than a 
mile away, stretches a long, narrow piece of 



in a picturesque way, helps to inclose an 
admirable harbor for Nassau. 

There is no lack of islands and islets in 
what might be called the Bahamian Arch- 
ipelago, which stretches some six hundred 
miles from San Domingo nearly to Florida. 
The collection comprises, according to 
official count, twenty-nine islands, six hun- 
dred and sixty-one cays, and two thousand 
three hundred and eighty-seven rocks, — 
assorted sizes. 

New Providence is the most important 
member of this collection, but like many 
other most important things, it is by no 
means the biggest, being only twenty-one 
miles long and seven broad, while the Great 
Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, Andros, and 
some of the other islands, are very many 
times larger, some of them being a hundred 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



13 



miles long. But New Providence has the 
brains, tlie other islands have merely size. 

The health-officer came on board, and we 
were soon free to go ashore. We found that, 
like ourselves, nearly all our fellow-passen- 
gers were going to the Royal Victoria Hotel. 
We speedily secured one of the one-horse 
barouches ; the red-vested driver pulled his 
silk hat a little tighter on his head, cracked 
his whip and away we went. As we rode 
through the town we noticed that the streets 
were very hard and smooth, and white and 
narrow, and that there was a great prepon- 
derance of wall in every direction; and in 
about two minutes we noticed that we were 
at the hotel. 

The hotel made quite an impression upon 
us, even before we entered it. It stands higli, 
spreads wide, and looks large, and cool, and 
solid. It is a hotel of which Her Majesty 
need not be ashamed. In front of the main 
door-way, which is level with the ground, is 
an inclosed and covered court. In the sides 
of this are arched gate- ways through which 
the carriage-road passes, and in the front 
wall are four or five door-ways. The space — 
and there is a good deal of it — between the 
carriage-way and the house is paved and is 
generally pretty well covered with arm-chairs, 
for this court, as we soon found, is the 
favorite resort of the guests. The sun can get 
no entrance here, while through the numerous 
door- ways cut in the massive walls the 
breezes come from nearly every direction. 
The interior of the house is also arranged 
with a view to coolness and shade. There is 
not a fire-place or a chimney in the whole 
structure. The cooking is done in a separate 
building, and in Nassau the people do not 



need fires for warmth. We found, in fact, 
that Nassau is almost a town without chim- 
neys. In looking over the place, from some 
of the high piazzas of the Royal Victoria, 
scarcely a chimney could be seen on a 





GIVE US A SMALL COPPER, BOSS. 



A LITTLE BOY IN FULL DRESS. 

dwelling-house, and those on the little out- 
side kitchens were so covered up by foliage 
that they were not easily perceived. 

We went to breakfast with hopeful hearts. 
It was a good breakfast. In addition to 
the fare which one would expect at a first- 
class and well-kept hotel, we had fresh 
fruit, radishes, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and 
other little matters of the kind to which 
we were not accustomed in winter-time. 
The very first thing I 
did after breakfast was 
to go and buy a straw 
hat. I ahvays wear a 
straw hat in sliced tomato 
time. I saw a little of 
the town while I was 
bujang my hat, but I did 
not look at it much, for 
I did not wish to take 
an unfair advantage of 
my wife ; and, as soon 
as possible, we started 
out together to see the 
town. 

It was certainly a 
novel experience to walk 
through the streets of 
Nassau. At first it 
seemed to us as if the 



14 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



whole place — streets, houses and walls — had 
been cut out of one solid block of the whitest 
lime-stone, for the material in all appeared 
to be the same. There are very few side- 
walks, and these are generally not so good 
to walk on as the middle of the street. The 
houses are wide and low, and generally have 
piazzas around them on every story. Nearly 
every house has a garden, — sometimes quite 
a large one, — surrounded, not by a fence, 
but by a high stone-wall. It is these walls, 
over which you see the broad leaves of ban- 
anas, or the beautiful tops of cocoa-nut- trees, 
with other rich and unfamiliar foliage, which, 
more than anything else, give tlie town its 
southern, and, to us, its entirely foreign, ap- 
pearance. The gardens, and all the spaces 
about the houses, are crowded with trees, 
buslies and flowers. Roses were in bloom 
everywhere, and oleanders, twenty feet high, 
waved their pink blossoms over the street. 

We walked down-Parliament street, which 
leads from the high ground on which the 
hotel stands to Bay street, which is the 
principal thoroughfare and business avenue 
of the town. This street runs along the 
water-front, and on one side for some dis- 




A NASSMJ MANSION. 



tance there is a succession of shops and 
business places of various kinds. On the 
water side of the street are the wharfs, the 
market, the Vendue House, the barracks, 
and quite a number of stores and counting- 
houses. And all these, taken in the aggre- 
gate, give Bay street quite a busy appear- 
ance. 

And here we began to understand what 
is meant by the statement that there are 
negroes in Nassau. If I should say that 
the whole surface of the ground as far as 
the eye could reach, up or down the street, 
was covered with darkeys of every possible 
age, sex, size and condition in life, I should 
say what is not exactly true. It is difficult, 
however, to erase that impression from the 
mind, — for there they were strolling along the 
sidewalks (tliis street boasts those conveni- 
ences), standing in groups, laughing, talking, 
arguing, sitting on stones and door-steps, 
and by gate- ways, selling bananas, short 
pieces of sugar-cane, roots, and nuts; run- 
ning hither and thither, flirting, begging, 
loafing, doing anything but working. Down 
by the market they swarmed like bees, 
some selling, some looking on, a few 
buying, and all jabbering away 
right and left. 

When we next took a walk, 
we rambled to the south of the 
town, — to the suburbs, where 
r* these darkeys live. We went 

down a long street, or lane, bor- 
dered on each side by little gar- 
dens, in which stood thatched 
cottages and small low houses 
of various kinds, all in the most 
picturesque state of dilapidation, 
and surrounded, covered, em- 
braced, sheltered and fondled by 
every kind of bush, tree and vine 
that will grow without the help 
of man ; and, as nearly all the 
vegetation in Nassau will do that, 
bananas, cocoa-nuts, oranges and 
tamarinds clustered around these 
contented-looking Httle huts in 
masses of every shade of green, 
picked out with the golden hues 
of oranges, and the colors of every 
blossom that grows. 

Looking down the lane, the 
view was lovely. The tall cocoa- 
nuts, with their tufts of long, mag- 
nificent leaves, waved on each 
side, until in the distance they 
seemed to touch across the white 
street that ran down through the 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



15 



sea of foliage which spread away on either 
side, broken only by the thatched and 
pointed roofs that rose here and there 
like islands out 'of the green. The red 
shawls of the distant negro women gave 
the brilliant points of color, while the 
strong sunlight gave warmth to a scene 
that was more than semi-tropical. In the 
street, in the gardens, on the door-steps 
lounged and lay the happy people who had 



if I gave half of what was asked, I conferred 
a measureless content upon the seller. Sub- 
sequently I learned that about one-eighth 
of one per cent, of the sum asked was enough 
for an opening offer, when trading with the 
negroes of Nassau. The youngsters who 
had no wares to sell were nothing loth to 
ask for donations, and " Give us a small 
copper, boss," was the refrain of most of the 
infantile prattle that we heard. 




NASSAU HARBOR. 



all this for nothing. They are true lotus- 
eaters, these negroes, but they need not sail 
away to distant isles to eat and dream. 
Their lotos grows on every cocoa-nut-tree, 
and on every banana ; it oozes out with the 
juice of their sugar-cane, and they bake it 
in their yams. 

From out of the huts and gardens the 
brown, black and yellow little girls came with 
roses and bunches of orange-blossoms. We 
first bought of one and then of another, 
until, if we had not suddenly stopped, we 
should have ruined ourselves. The prices 
they asked were but litde more than the 
flowers would have cost in the hot-house of 
a New York florist, but I soon found that 



If colored people feel lazy in the Ba- 
hamas, it is not to be wondered at. Every- 
thing feels lazy, even the mercury in the ther- 
mometers. It is exceedingly difficult to get 
it to move. While we were there, it was 
always at, or about, seventy-four degrees, 
once rising to eighty degrees, but soon sub- 
siding again to the old spot. For myself, 
I like mercury that is content to dwell at 
seventy-four degrees. There is no better 
spot on the whole surface of the ther- 
mometer. And why should people toil and 
sweat in this happy island ? The trees and 
vines and vegetables do not ask it of them. 
Things grow in Nassau for the love of grow- 
ing ; they do not have to be coaxed. In the 



i6 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



negro suburbs we saw very little cultivation. 
The trees and plants did not even seem to 
care about soil to any great extent. We saw 
large trees growing, apparently, right out of, 
the stones and rocks. Of course, there 
was some' earth in the crevices, but there = 
was precious little of it anywhere. The 
whole island is of coral origin, and is now 
like a great lime-stone rock, covered with a 
very thin layer of rich soil. But this thin 
layer suffices for the luxuriant vegetation of 
the Bahamas, although I think that one of 
the long carrots of our country would find 
it very difficult to grow at Nassau, unless it 
were furnished with a rock-drill at the ex- 
tremity of its root. 

There is a fine, large jail here, a very cool 
and well-arranged edifice. The inmates are 
almost exclusively negroes. There was one 
white man there when I saw the place, but 
he was a sailor from a foreign ship in port, 
who did not know, perhaps, that it was not 
a custom of the country for white folks to 
get themselves put in prison. When a 
negro enters this jail, — and he generally 
goes in for petty larceny or a similar crime, 
— his habits undergo a complete revolution. 
He has to work hard. Dressed in white 
shirt, trowsers and cap (for liere white is the 
color that does not show dirt), with bare feet 
and a long chain running from each ankle 
to a belt at his waist, he marches in military 
order with a company of his fellows to 
sweep the streets, mend the pavements and 
work in the public grounds. He also labors 
in the jail and learns to despise, from the 
bottom of his soul, the temporary, but de- 
plorable, weakness of Adam. But it must 
not be supposed that these criminals are the 
only negroes Avho are industrious. There 
are colored people in Nassau who have found 
out that it pays to work, — moderately, — and 
so have arrived at positions of ease and 
comparative independence. The policemen 
here, with one or two exceptions, are black 
men. They wear handsome blue uniforms, 
and walk slower and put on greater airs of 
dignity and authority than any other body 
of police officers that 1 have ever met. 

The government of the Bahamas appears 
to be highly satisfactory to all parties con- 
cerned. As a colony of Great Britain, the 
islands have a colonial governor, who is 
assisted in his governmental duties by Her 
Majesty's executive council and Her Majes- 
ty's legislative council. The people at large 
have also a voice in the matter through the 
representatives they send to the House of 
Assembly, a body of about thirty members. 



The currency in use is a curious mixture 
of American and EngHsh money, with occa- 
sional additions of the coins of other climes. 
Our greenbacks are readily received at par, 
and our silver half and quarter dollars at a 
slight discount, but the smaller money in 
use with us will not pass current. The 
small change is principally English coin, — 
eight, six, four and three-penny pieces, a 
small silver coin called a " check," worth a 
penny and a half, and copper pennies and 
halfpence. Among the latter we met with 
a great many friends of other days in the 
shape of our old-fashioned copper cents. 
One or two of the guests at the hotel, who 
were coin collectors, found prizes among 
the coppers. The negroes gave, in change, 
not only rare United States cents, pass- 
ing for halfpence, but copper coins of the 
same general size, from various parts of the 
world. It quite recalled the feelings of 
my youth to get change for a quarter, and go 
about with a lot of heavy coppers jingling 
in my pocket. 

But there is no difficulty at all in getting 
rid of this weighty change. An opportunity 
is afforded twice a day at the main entrance 
of the hotel, where, after breakfast and after 
dinner, will be found on every week-day a 
regular fair or market. The negroes come 
Avith the greatest variety of commodities for 
sale, and range themselves around the inside 
of the inclosure, some sitting down by the 
walls with their baskets before them, others 
standing about with their wares in their 
hands, while others, more enterprising, cir- 
culate among the ladies and gentlemen, who 
are taking their after-meal rest in the numer- 
ous arm-chairs on each side of the door. 
It would be impossible to name everything 
which may be bought in this market, for 
new and unique commodities are continu- 
ally turning up. Flowers and fruit of every 
kind that grows here, sponges, shells of 
almost every imaginable variety, canes and 
hats of native manufacture, star-fish, berries, 
conchs, sugar-cane, sea-beans of all kinds 
and colors, and all sorts of ornaments made 
of tortoise-shell and other shells. One 
day a boy brought a litde dog ; a girl had 
a live bird, which she would either sell or 
liberate on the payment of a small sum by 
any humane person. A big black man 
brought a tarantula spider in a bottle, 
and you can always get centipedes if you 
want them. Many things — sponges, for 
instance — can be bought at very low prices 
by people who are willing to bargain a 
little. 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



ty 



We bought and tasted of almost every 
kind of native fruit ; some of it was very 
curious to look at, and some was very good to 
eat. The sappadillo is a small round fruit, 
the color of a potato on the outside, and as 
sweet as sugared honey inside. The grape- 
fruit has the flavor and taste of an orange, 
and is a rich and juicy fruit for a hot 
day, but the skin and pulp must be avoid- 
ed. Guavas are fragrant and luscious. 
Jamaica apples, which are masses of sweet 
custard, covered with a thin skin, are almost 
too rich for a novice in West Indian fruits. 
Mangoes are said to be delicious, but they 
ripen later in the season. The sour-sop is a 
great green fruit, like a bloated cucumber, 
and has been aptly compared, in regard to 
taste, to cotton soaked in vinegar. The 
lemons are enormous and very fine, and 
there are limes, and star-apples, and tama- 
rinds, and other things of the kind which I 
cannot remember. But the fruits we liked 
best were those to which we had been 
accustomed, — oranges, 
pine-apples and ban- 
anas. We had not, 
however, been accus- 
tomed to pine-apples 
naturallyripened. Those 
sent from Nassau to 
the United States are 
shipped in a partially 
green state, and ripen 
themselves as well as 
circumstances allow. 
But a pine-apple ripened 
in its native soil, and 
under its native sun, was 
an unknown joy to us. 
It was not the pine- 
apple season, but in this 
happy climate season 
does not make much 
difference to fruits, and 
there were generally 
some pine-apples to be 
had. 

) Not only venders of 
merchandise but every 
one who has any means 
of making money out 
of the visitors is to be 
found at this hotel-door 
market, — men with horses and carriages 
to hire; captains of sail-boats; humbler 
folk who will tike you rowing, or com- 
manders of fishing-smacks anxious to take 
a fishing party " outside." As soon as 
possible I engaged a man to take me fishing. 



I have always delighted in the sport, and 
here I should certainly have some new ex- 
periences. We started after breakfast, my- 
self and the fisherman, in a tight little, round 
little, dirty little sloop, with a " well " in it 
to keep captured fish alive, and decked 
over fore and aft. The boat was strong 
and safe, if not very pretty, and away we went 
over the bar and out to sea. We anchored 
off" Hog Island, some distance from land, 
and my good man lowered his sail and got 
out his lines and bait. The latter was conch- 
meat. He took up a conch, several of 
which he ' had bought in the market before 
we started, and broke the shell to pieces 
with a small iron bar. Then he pulled out 
the inmate, which resembles an immense 
clam with a beak and a tail, and examined 
it for pearls. In these conchs, pearls of a 
pretty pinkish hue are occasionally, but not 
often, found by fortunate fishermen and 
divers. One of them sold for four hundred 
dollars in London, I was informed. Small 




SELLING A TARANTULA. 



ones, worth from ten to a hundred dollars, 
are occasionally seen in the Nassau shops. 
Finding no pearl, my fisherman laid his 
conch on the deck and hammered it with a 
wooden beater until it was soft enough to 
cut up for the hooks. All this made a good 



i8 



AN ISLE OF JUNK 



deal of noise, which I was afraid would 
frighten away the fish, but when the hooks 
Avere baited and we were ready to commence 
operations, the man took an old and empty 
conch- shell, and holding it over the water 







FORT FINCASTLE. 



hammered it into bits, making as much 
noise as possible in so doing. This, he 
said, — and he seemed to know all about it, — 
was to attract the fish. These proceedings 
were very different from what I had been 
accustomed to in my fishing excursions at 
home, when everybody kept as quiet as 
possible, but my fisherman's next move 
astonished me still more. He coolly re- 
marked that he would look and .see if there 
were any fish in the water about our boat. 
We were gently tossing on waves that were 
entirely difterent from the transparent water 
of the harbor, and apparently as opaque 
as any other waves. I could see a few 
inches below the surface perhaps, but cer- 
tainly no more. But my man knew what 
he was talking about. From under his little 



deck he drew forth a '' water-glass," which 
is a light wooden box, about twenty inches 
long and a foot square, open at one end, 
and with a pane of glass inserted at the 
other end, which is somewhat the larger. 
He held this box over the side 
of the boat, and sinking the glass 
end a few inches below the sur- 
face of the water, he put his eye 
to the other end and looked in. 
— " Yes," said he, "there's lots of 
fish down there. Take a look at 
them." I took the box and 
looked down into the water, 
which was five or six fathoms 
deep. I could see everything 
under the water as plainly as if 
it had all been in the upper air, — 
the smooth white sandy bottom; 
the stones lying on it, covered 
with sea-weed; the star-fish and 
such sea-creatures lying perfectly 
still, or gently waving themselves 
about, and the big fish slowly 
swimming around and occasion- 
ally turning up one eye to look 
at us. Looking through this 
" water-glass," it was as light as 
day down under the sea. 

The fisherman, who was of 
white blood, although he was 
tanned as dark as a mulatto, knew 
all the different fish and told 
me their names. The " mutton- 
fish " and the " groupers " were 
the largest we saw. Some of 
these were two or three feet 
long. We now lowered our lines 
and began to fish. The man 
kept the water-glass in his hand 
most of the time, so as to see 
what would come to the lines. Sometimes 
I would take a look and see the fish come 
slowly swimming up to my bait, which rested 
on the bottom, look at it, and perhaps take a 
little nibble, and then disdainfully swim away. 
They did not seem to be very hungry. Pretty 
soon the fisherman caught a '■ hind," — a fish 
about a foot long, of a beautiful orange color 
with red and black spots. I soon caught 
one of the same kind. Then the man 
hauled up a "blue-fish," one of the very 
handsomest fishes I ever saw. It was not 
at all like our so-called blue-fish. This 
was about twenty inchea long and of a 
beautiful polished, dark sky-blue all over — 
fins, head, tail and every other part. It 
was more like a very bright blue china-fish 
than anything else. 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



19 



This man had a queer way of classifying 
fish. " There's one at your hook now, sir," 
he would say, and when I would ask if it 
was a big one he would sometimes answer, 
" Well, about two shillin's," or " That's a big 
feller; three shillin's, sure," and sometimes, 
*' That's a little one, biting at you, about six- 
pence." 

While we were fishing, we saw, at a short 
distance, some conch-divers at work. There 
were two of them, and neither of them wore 
any clothes. One of them sculled their 
small boat, while the other fellow stood like a 
bronze statue in the bow. Every now and 
then- they would stop and look into the sea 
Avith a water-glass, and if they saw a conch, 
over would go the diver into eight or ten 
fathoms of water and bring it up. It seemed 
like a very lonely kind of business, to go 
away off on the sea in a little bit of a boat 
and then to leave even that, and dive down 
into the ocean depths, among the quiet 
fishes and the solemn rocks, for a three-cent 
conch. I asked my fisherman if there were 
sharks hereabouts. 

" Plenty of 'em," he answered ; " some- 
times they come around my boat and snap 
at my fish as fast as I catch 'em. They 
soon break the lines and make me pull up 
and get away. Yes, there's lots of 'em, but 
they wont bite a nigger." 

We soon became convinced that Feb- 
ruary is June in Nassau. The weather was 
that of early summer, and everybody was in 
light clothes and straw hats. In the sun it is 
often quite warm; in the shade you can gen- 
erally rely on seventy- four degrees. We never 
found it too warm to go about sight-seeing, 
and there is a good deal to see in and about 
Nassau, if you choose to go and look at it. 
Back of the hotel, on a commanding hill, 
stands Fort Fincastle, a curious old strong- 
hold. Viewed from the front, it looks very 
much like a side-wheel steamer built of stone. 
The flag-staff increases the delusion by its 
resemblance to a fore-mast. This fort was 
built long before steamboats Avere heard of, 
so that the idea that it is a petrified steamer 
is utterly ridiculous. 

The fort is commanded and garrisoned 
by one man whose duty it is to signal the 
approach of vessels. He must have had a 
lively time, during our late war, when so 
many blockade-runners came to Nassau, 
and when a steamer might come rushing 
into the harbor with a gun- boat hot behind 
it — at any time of day or night. 

Fort Charlotte, at the western end of the 
town, is a good place to go to, if you like 



mysterious underground passages, deep, 
solemn and dark chambers, cut out of the 
solid rock, and all sorts of uncanny and 
weird places, where a negro with a double- 
barreled lamp leads you through the dark- 
ness. In this fort, which was built by the 
Earl of Dunmore, nearly a hundred years 
ago,, there is a curious deep well, with cir- 
cular stairs leading to the bottom of it, and 
the stairs, central pillar and well are all 
cut out of the solid rock. We went down 
that dismal well, slowly and cautiously, 
and we found at the bottom a long passage 
which led to the " Governor's room." There 
was no governor there, for the fort is now 
deserted, except by a couple of negroes, who 
help the Fincastle man to look out for ves- 
sels, but it must have been a very good 
place for a governor to go to, if his subjects 
did not love him. 

The military element is quite conspicuous 
in Nassau. There are large barracks at the 
west end of the town ; a British man-of-war 
generally lies in the harbor, and in the cool 
of the evening you may almost always see, 
down the white vista of the narrow street, 
the red coat of a British soldier. 

There is a nice little public square which 
lies on the water side of Bay street and 
fronts the public buildings, where are the 
court-houses, house of assembly. Bank, and 
other similar places of resort. Whenever 
we would go — on a pleasant morning, after- 
noon or evening — to this square, to sit by 
the stone boat-stairs, or to stand on the 
sea-wall and view the lovely water with 
its changing hues of green, its yachts, its 
ships, and all its busy smaller craft, and 
sniff with delight the cool salt breeze 
that blows so gayly over the narrow back 
of Hog Island, there would certainly come 
running to us two, three, or a dozen litde 
black boys with the entreaty : " Please, 
boss, give us a small dive." If I happened 
to have any change, and wished to see 
some funny work in the water, I put my 
hand in my poqket, and instantly every little 
black boy jerked off his shirt. It is no 
trouble for the negro children to undress in 
Nassau. The very little ones wear only a 
small shirt and a straw hat. Sometimes 
there is not much muslin in this shirt, but 
they are always particular to have it come 
down low enough to cover the breast-bone. 
If I find a penny, I toss it into the water, 
and instantly every darkey boy, clad in 
nothing but his scanty trowsers, plunges in 
after it. Sometimes a spry little fellow 
catches the coin before it reaches the bot- 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 




DARKEYS DIVING FOR PENNIES. 



torn, and it is never long before some fellow 
comes up with the money in his mouth. 
Sometimes when a coin is not readily 
found, it is curious to look down through 
the clear water and see the young rascals 
moving their legs and arms about down at 
the bottom like a lot of enormous brown 
frogs. 

There are not many places of public 
resort in Nassau; but there is a library 
which has eight sides and six thousand 
books, and where the pleasant young ])eople 
of Nassau — and there are a great many of 
them — go to see one another, and to look 
over the volumes in the cool alcoves. 

There is another place which always 
looks delightfully cool and shady, and 
which, if it is not patronized by lovers, ought 
to be, and this is a very long, narrow and 
deep ravine which was cut in the lime-stone 
rock, not far from the hotel, many years 
ago by tlie i)eople who were building the 
town. At the upper end is a long flight of 
steps leading to the hill on which Fort Fin- 
castle stands, and this is called " The 
Queen's Staircase." It has been long 
since any stone has been taken from this 
ravine. The stairs, which were admirably 



cut out of the rock, have been worn away 
in places by many feet, and the whole place 
has grown up cool and green, with all sorts 
of vines and shrubbery. Here we found a 
great many of the "life-leaf" plant, — a curi- 
ous growth, from the fact that a leaf of it 
will live for months, pinned to your wall, 
and not only that, but little plants will come 
out of the edges of the leaf and grow just as 
comfortably as if they were in the ground. 

It is genuine pleasure to take a ride about 
Nassau. Apart from the fact that there is a 
good deal to be seen, it is delightful to ride 
over roads which are so hard, so smooth, 
and so level that it does not seem to be any 
trouble whatever for a horse to pull a buggy. 
If it were any trouble, I don't believe the 
Nassau horses would do it. 

The first time we took a buggy-ride, our 
little mite of a horse bowled us along at a 
lively rate, and all was charming — fine 
breeze, lovely road by the water, suburbs 
fading into country, and all that — until we 
met a wagon. Then Ave came very near 
having a smash-up. For some reason or 
other, myself and the other driver turned 
right into each other. We pulled up in time 
to prevent damage; the other man swore, 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



and, jerking his horse around, drove off 
angrily. I could not imagine why this 
should have happened, until I suddenly 
remembered that this was, theoretically, 
English soil, and on English soil drivers 
turn to the left. It was well I thought of 
this and remembered it, or else on our 
return, when we met all the fashionable peo- 
ple of Nassau taking their afternoon air on 
the road, I should have run into the gover- 
nor's carriage containing some of his family ; 
then, in a few minutes, into the governor 
himself, riding rapidly on a fine horse, and 
after that into a number of ladies and gen- 
tlemen in buggies or one-horse barouches. 
Some of those in buggies were visitors from 
the hotel, and very difficult to avoid, having 
a habit of turning sometimes one way and 
sometimes the other. 

The governor, who resides in the govern- 
ment house, a spacious building on the 
heights back of the city, is a tall, handsome 
Englishman, who has filled his present post 
for about two years to the satisfaction of 
everybody, I believe, excepting those enter- 
prising people who wish to revive the old 
business of wrecking, for which the Bahamas 
used to be so famous. It is certain that 
there are very few islands which are so 
advantageously placed for this sort of busi- 
ness ; for it is not only difficult for ships sail- 
ing in these waters to keep at a safe distance 
from the twenty-nine islands, the six hundred 
and sixty-one cays, and the two thousand 
three hundred and eighty-seven rocks, but 
there is a constant temptation to skippers 
to run a vessel ashore and share with the 
wreckers the salvage money. Then, too, it is 
so much more enjoyable (to wreckers) to see 
a vessel smash her sides on a coral reef than 
to see her sail stupidly into port that any 
one who endeavors to persuade these people 
that it will be better for all parties to give 
up the time-honored business of wrecking 
and devote themselves to raising oranges 
and pine-apples, has a hard task before 
him. 

The principal road on the island runs 
along the northern shore for fifteen miles or 
more, and is a beautiful drive, for the most 
part along the edge of the harbor. This 
was the road we took on our first ride, and 
among the curious things we saw on the 
way was a banyan-tree. There it stood by 
the roadside, the regular banyan of the 
geographies, with its big trunk in the mid- 
dle and all its little trunks coming down 
from the branches above. I always thought 
of the banyan as an East Indian tree, and 



did not expect to find it in the Bahamas. 
However, there are not many of these trees 
on the island, I believe, of the size and 
symmetry of this one. 

There are a good many trees of distinc- 
tion in and about Nassau. In the garden 
of the Rev. Mr. Swann, rector of the 
cathedral, there are two very fine royal 
Afirican palms, and back of the public 
buildings is a " silk cotton-tree " which is a 
wonderful specimen of what Nature can do 
when she tries her hand at curious vegeta- 
tion. This tree, which is inclosed by a 
fence to protect it from visitors, is nothing 
very remarkable, as to its upper works, so to 
speak, except that it bears a pod which con- 
tains a silky cotton, but it is very remarkable 
indeed when one considers its roots. These 
stand up out of the ground six or eight 
feet high, like great wooden walls, radiating 
from the trunk ten or twenty feet outward, 
making an arrangement somewhat re- 
sembling a small, circular church with high- 
backed pews. The branches extend out- 
ward for a great distance, making this the 
most imposing tree on the island, although 




THE NASSAU LIBRARY. 

silk cotton-trees are not at all uncommon. 
There is a very fine one on the hotel grounds. 
In the interior of the island are some 
very pretty lakes. One of these, called, I 
am sorry to say. Lake Killarney, is a 
charming spot. We rode over there one 
afternoon in a one-horse barouche with a 
high-hatted driver. The road for some miles 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



leads westwardly along the beach, and 
gives views of some lovely bays and coves, 
and the cays that guard the western side of 
the entrance to the harbor, with the white 
foam dashing up against their coral sides. 
Then we struck back into the country and 



green and yellow in the leaves, the blossoms 
and the young fruit, made a very striking 
picture. 

From the top of the hill on which the 
plantation lies may be had the finest view 
in the whole island. Before you lies Lake 




bll.K LU 1 I 



rode through the pines to the lake, which 
stretches up and down for three miles. Its 
water is a beautiful green, like that in the har- 
bor, and the banks, which were cut up into 
picturesque little bays and peninsulas, were 
heavily wooded, except in one spot, where 
a Jiill running down to the water's edge 
had been cleared and planted with pine- 
apples. Going out on a rude little pier we 
saw a couple of negroes in a boat, returning 
from a duck-hunt. One of these we hired 
to row us to the pine-apple plantation, about 
a mile away, leaving our stately driver to 
enjoy the shade of the wild orange and 
lemon trees until our return. 

A ])ine-applc jjlantation was something 
entirely new to us, and this was a very large 
and fine one. The plants were set out all 
over the field about two or three feet apart. 
The alternations of bright pink, purple, 



Killarney, its apple-green waters sparkling 
between its darker-hued shores, while back 
to the left, you see another and a larger 
lake shimmering in the distance, and back 
to tlie right, over the masses of foliage that 
stretch away for miles and miles, you can 
see the ocean, with the steeples of the town 
peeping up along its edge. 

We took another long ride — the road 
running by the beach all the way — to what 
are called the Caves. Two of these are 
good-sized caverns near the shore, but 
there is another one, better worth seeing, 
which is nearly a mile back in the country 
and to which we walked, for there is no 
road across the fields. The outer portion 
or vestibule of this cave is divided into two 
portions at right angles with each other, , 
and one of them is not at all unlike a small 
cathedral, with altar, pillars,' a recessed 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



n 



chancel, and long cords like bell-pulls or sup- 
ports for chandeliers hanging from the ceil- 
ing. The latter were slender rootlets, or rather 
branches seeking to become trunks, which 
came down from banyan-trees on the ground 
above, and finding their way through crev- 
ices in the roof, took root in the floor of the 
cave. I took away one of them, about one- 
third of an inch in diameter and some fifteen 
feet long, and coiling it up, put it in my 
trunk. . When my travels were over, and I 
had reached home, I hung the coil on a nail 
in the wall, and there, at least three months 
after it was cut, that bit of banyan, which 
had remained perfectly green and flexible 
all this time, began to sprout out rootlets 
down toward the carpet, and 
these are now six or seven feet 
long. This ridiculous piece of 
wood is growing yet, without 
water, without earth, and with no 
other culture than that of being 
packed in a trunk and hung up 
on a nail. 

As to the main cavern, which 
opens from what I have called 
the vestibule caves by means of a 
four-foot hole, and which extends 
for a half mile or thereabouts 
toward the beach, we did not visit 
it. We were told by our negro 
guide, with many gesticulations, 
that this was a wonderful cave, 
and that if we had candles and 
plenty of matches it would be a 
good thing to go in, but that if 
we should accidentally be left 
there in the dark we would never, 
never come out alive! 

The Hog Island beach is one 
of the best places that I know 
about Nassau. It is a short row 
across to the island, which is so 
narrow that a minute's walk takes 
one to the other side. Here the shore is high 
and rocky, rising, in most places, twenty feet 
above the water-level. The rocks are what 
are called "honey-comb rocks," and are 
worn and cut by the action of the waves into 
all sorts of twisted, curled, pointed, scooped- 
out, jagged forms, so that it is difficult to pick 
your way over them, although their general 
surface is nearly level. The surf comes roll- 
ing in on the rocks, and dashes and surges 
and leaps against them, while every now 
and then a wave larger and mightier than 
its fellows hurls itself high up on the shore, 
throwing its spray twenty or thirty feet into 
the air, like an immense glittering fountain. 



In many places the rocks are undermined 
for a considerable distance, and the sea 
rolls and rumbles in under your feet. Here 
and there are holes, three or four feet wide, 
down which you can look into the sub- 
marine caverns and see the water boiling 
and surging and hissing, while occasionally, 
a great wave rushing in below sends a water- 
spout through one of these holes, high into 
the air. When the wind is from the north 
the sight here must be magnificent. There 
is a reef a short distance from the beach 
which breaks the force of the surf some- 
what, but when there is a strong wind blow- 
ing directly on shore, the waves often leap 
clean over Hog Island and dash into the 




A PINE APPLE IN ITS NATIVE SOIL. 



harbor. At such times the light-house on 
the point would be a better place to view 
the scene than the rocks where we usually 
sat. 

Toward the eastern part of this island, 
there are several little coves with a smooth 
beach, of the very whitest sand that a beach 
can have. Here the surf is not high, and 
the bathing is excellent. A comfortable 
sea-bath in winter-time — a bath in water 
that IS warm, and under skies that are blue 
with the blueness of our summer mornings, 
is a joy that does not fall to the lot of every 
man. But here you may bathe in the surf 
almost any day, and along the water-front 



24 



AJ\r ISLE OF JUNE. 



of the city there are private bath-houses, 
for still-water bathing, and I was told 
that others are to be erected for the use -of 
the Royal Victoria, which gathers under its 
wings nearly all the winter visitors, though 
there are one or two small hotels in Nassau, 
one good American house of the first class, 
and some boarding-houses. 

Once a year there are regattas at Nassau, 
and the occasion is made a grand holiday 
by all classes — the principal holiday of 
the year. We were lucky enough to be 
there on regatta day, which fell on the sixth 
of March, and it would have warmed the 
cockles of anybody's heart to see so many 
happy people. All the places of business 
were shut up, and everybody came to see the 
sights. The buildings fronting on the water 
were crowded with white folks, and the 
piers and wharves, and coal heaps, and piles 
of lumber, and barrels, and boxes, and posts 
were covered with negroes, as ants cover a 
lump of sugar. And better than sugar to 
ants was this jolly day to that black crowd 
with so few shoes and so many hats. Like 
the shore, the water was crowded. Craft of 
every kind were to be seen : sloops just in 
from sponging expeditions or voyages to the 
" out islands ;" vessels at anchor ; sail-boats 
shooting here and there; and among all, 
wherever there was room for a row-boat, 
there a row-boat was. There were races for 
schooners, yachts, fishing-smacks, spongers, 
and for row-boats of all grades; and there 
were swimming matches, and a "duck- 
hunt," in which an active fellow in a little 
boat was chased, for a wager, by other 
boats. 

But it is not necessary to participate in a 
regatta in order to have good sailing in 
Nassau waters. Sail-boats and yachts are 
continually cruising about in the harbor, 
and you can always hire a craft for a sail. 
The best sail we had while we were there 
— and we have no reason to expect ever to 
have a better one — was an excursion to a 
coral reef, some five miles from town. We 
were a j^arty of four, with Captain Sampson 
Stamp at the helm; and we took with us 
two young negro divers. Captain Sampson 
is a fine sailorly-looking darkey, and if you 
believe him, he can take you in his little 
boat and sail you to the lowlands low, or 
the highlands high, or to any other place 
on earth accessible by water. He certainly 
can sail a boat, and he took us away on 
about five Japanese fanfuls of wind, up the 
harbor, and past the town, and close by 



Potter's Cay — a narrow island lying length- 
wise between Hog Island and the main- 
land ; and past the long suburb of little 
cabins and cottages belonging to fishermen 
and spongers, and other folk with watery 
occupations, and among the little fleet of 
small craft always to be found here, and so 
on to the end of Hog Island, where a strip 
of channel, called "The Narrows," separ- 
ates it from Athol Island, which here re- 
lieves Hog Island of the duty of harbor 
guard. We sailed through the Narrows, 
and in a short time were anchored on the 
reef, in about ten or twelve feet of water. 
Here the captain had told us we should 
see "a farm under water." And his words 
were true, only what we saw was more like 
a garden than a farm. Down at the bottom 
we could see — quite plain with the naked 
eye, but ever so much better with the wa- 
ter-glass — a lovely garden where there were 
sea-fans, purple and green, that spread 
themselves out from spurs of coral ; sea- 
feathers whose beautiful purple plumes 
rose three or four feet high, and waved 
under the water as trees wave in the wind ; 
curious coral formations, branched like 
trees, or rounded like balls, or made up 
into any fantastic form or shape that one 
might think of, and colored purple, green, 
yellow and gray, besides many-hued plants 
that looked like mosses, lichens, and vines 
growing high and low on the coral rocks. 
All among the nodding branches of the 
curious sea-plants swam the fish. Some 
of these were little things no longer than 
one's finger, colored as brilliantly as hum- 
ming-birds — blue, yellow and -red — and 
there were large blue-fish, and great striped 
fish, with rich bands of black and purple 
across their backs. Down into this under- 
water garden we sent the divers to pick for 
us what we wanted. Whenever we saw a 
handsome coral, or a graceful sea-feather 
or sea-fan that pleased our fancy, we point- 
ed it out to one of the young fellows, and 
down he plunged and brought it tip to us. 
I have never been in the habit of going 
about with governors' wives to call upon 
queens, but on one fine Sunday afternoon 
the wife of a governor — not the governor 
of the Bahamas — did take us to call upon 
a queen — not she of England, but one of 
undoubted royal blood. We first went to 
see the governor. He is a native African, 
Sampson Hunt by name. About forty 
years ago a couple of slavers, containing 
selected cargoes of Aricans, were captured 



AN ISLE OF JUNE. 



25 



by an English man-of-war, and the liber- 
ated negroes were brought to the Bahamas. 
They settled down on the outskirts of Nas- 
sau, and have since kept pretty well to- 
gether, the older ones using their native 
language among themselves, although most 
of them can speak English. Sampson 
Hunt is their governor, and lives in a little 
two-roomed house with a tall flag-staff in 
front of it. He is an intelligent man, and 
showed us a portion of the Bible printed in 
his language, the Yuruba. Among these 
Africans, when they were captured, was a 
young queen, who still lives, enjoying her 



majestically about her. She stood up 
when we entered, and gave us each her 
hand, making at the same time alow court- 
esy. She either felt her royal blood or had 
the lumbago, for she was very stiff indeed. 
She did not seem to be able to talk much 
in English, for the governoress spoke to 
her in African and her majesty made a re- 
mark or two to us in that language. Here 
was a chance for my phrases, so I said to 
the queen, ^^Oqua gallcB," which is equiva- 
lent to "good evening." What the queen 
said in answer I don't know, but the four 
grizzled old negroes on the bench jumped 




THE GLASS WINDOWS, HAEBOK ISLAND. 



rank, but having no authority. Of course 
we were anxious to see her, and so, as I 
have said, the governor's wife accompanied 
us to her house. On the way I took a few 
lessons in African from our obliging guide, 
and succeeded in learning one or two 
phrases which I thought might be useful at 
court. The queen's palace was larger than 
an old-fashioned high-posted bedstead, but 
not much. In one of its two rooms we 
found her majesty, sitting in a rocking- 
chair in front of the door, while on a bench 
at the side of the room sat four grizzled old 
negro men. The queen was a tall woman, 
with a high turban and a red shawl wrapped 



as if they had been struck by lightning 
They rolled about on the bench, their eyes 
sparkled, their teeth shone, they were con- 
vulsed with joy. "You been dar.?" asked 
the grizzliest. He was sorry to find that I 
had never visited his native land, although 
he probably thought it strange that I did 
not go, knowing the language so well. 
When he found it necessary to subside into 
English, he gave us a very interesting ac- 
count of the life on the slave-ship and the 
stirring events of the capture. 

The reputation of Nassau a^ a health- 
resort is increasing every year. There are 
many reasons for this. Not only is its cli- 



■26 



AN TSLE OF JUNE. 



mate in winter warm and equable, but its 
air is moderately dry, its drainage excel- 
lent, and its drinking-water plentiful and 
wholesome. The island, according to ex- 
cellent medical authority, is entirely free 
from malarial diseases, and it is, moreover, 
very easy of access. Its peculiar attrac- 
tions draw to it, from our shores, a great 
many invalids and persons of delicate con- 
stitutions who would find it difficult to 
keep alive during our terrible and decep- 
tive winter weather, but who under the 
blue skies of the Bahamas are happy as 
kings, and are out of doors all day. 

When we speak of this part of the world 
we generally say Nassau, because it is, so to 
speak, the center of the whole Bahamian 
system. But there are many attractions 
on the twenty-eight other islands, on which 
are some fifty small towns and settlements, 
and about thirty thousand inhabitants. ' 

Harbor Island, on the northern edge of 
the group, boasts the most pretentious pro- 
vincial settlement. Dunmore Town has 
two thousand inhabitants, and attractions 
of its own, some of which its citizens be- 
lieve to be quite equal to anything of the 
_^ kind in the Bahamas. The "Glass Win- 
dows," a high arch or natural bridge, eighty 
or ninety feet above the level of the sea, is 
one of the lions of Harbor Island. 

I have said it is easy to get to Nassau, 
and it is indeed a great deal easier than 
most persons suppose. There is a steamer 
every ten days from Savannah to Nassau, 
touching at St. Augustine, and the trip is 
always short, and generally smooth and 
pleasant. We made a good long stay in 
Nassau, and set sail for St. Augustine, our 
faces browned with Bahama sunshine, and 
our souls fired with the spirit of seventy- 
four Fahrenheit. 



From (hn Troy Budget, Janiiary 1, 1877. 
OUR WINTER RESORTS. 

THE GOLnEN GLOW OF THE TEOPICS. 

During tlie dreadful snow storm of Friday it 
was pleasant to sitby tlie blaze of a grate fire and 
dream of tlie golden glow and genial skies of 
more tropical climes, 
" Whe^(^ a leaf nevtr dips in the still blooming bowers, 

And the bee Ijantiuets on iu a wholf; yoar of flowers; 

Only simply to feel that you breathe, that yon live, 

Ih worth the best joy that life elsewhere can give." 

It is pleasant to read in midwinter of the pleas- 
ures of the South, even if we cannot at the mo- 
ment enjoy them. This year there are a larger 
number going ,to warmer climes from the North 
than there were last winter. The last steamer 
from New York took fifty passengers to Nassau, 



in the Bahamas. This resort is growing in favor 
every year. The climate is much more equable 
and genial even, than Florida. Those invalids 
who want an equable, genial climate will be apt 
to prefer Nassau, where there is rarely a greater 
change than two or three degrees in any day. 
Floating on the crystal waters of the Nassau Bay, 
one may well enjoy the experiences recorded by 
T. Buchanan Read: 

"I heed not if 

My rippling stiff 
Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff; — 

With dreamful eyes 

My spirit lies 
Under the walls of Paradise. 

" Under the walls 

Where swells and falls 
The Bay's deep breast at intervals. 

At peace I lie, 

Blown softly by, 
A cloud upon this liquid sky. 

" The day so mild 

Is Heaven's own child 
With Earth and Ocean reconciled; — 

The airs I feel 

Around me steal 
Are murmuring to the murmuring keel." 



THE BAHAMAS. 



TO THOSE INTENDING TO VISIT US — HOW TO GO AND WHAT 
TO CAEBT. 



Special correspondence of The Detroit Free Press. 

Nassau, Sept. 15. 

A WORD TO THOSE INTENDING TO VISIT US. 

Having told you where we live, how we live, 
and what we live upon, let me say a word to any 
of your invalid — or healthy readers. For all dis- 
eases of the lungs, throat, liver, kidneys or spine, 
there is no climate on the face of the earth su- 
perior, and I doubt if any equal, to the climate 
of Nassau. While in Florida the mercury often 
shows a change of twenty to thirty degrees in the 
temperature in twenty-four and often twelve 
hours, we never see a change of over five degrees 
in the same time, and often for weeks there is 
not a variation of five degrees. Our island being 
completely surrounded by the ocean, and of not a 
very high elevation — like Cuba, Jamaica and St. 
Domingo, or St. Thomas — we have the full bene- 
fit of the cool, invigorating sea-breeze, directly 
from the Atlantic. Some most wonderful cures 
of pulmonary diseases, asthma, rheumatism, 
neuralgia and bronchitis have been performed 
almost entirely by the climate. Let me impress 
upon you not to delay coming until your disease 
is so firmly seated that neither climate nor your 
physician can render you any aid. In the first 
stage of the disease your recovery is almost cer- 
tain. In the second stage your chances are more 
than even. I have known invalids brought on 
shore on a stretcher, and seen them walking about 
the streets a week afterwards. If you make up 
your mind to try our climate, don't put it off too 
late in the season. You should be here as early 
as on the first of November, and make up your 
minds not to leave before the middle of May, or, 
still better, the first of June. Your ordinary 
fall clothing will be as thick as you will require 
in our coolest weather. The price of board at the 
Royal Victoria Hotel is tlirce dollars per day, the 
smaller hotel charges one dolla/i" and fifty cents. 



NASSAU, N. P. 



27 



boarding-liouses from ten to fourteen dollars per 
week, and some even less. Carriage and boat hire 
is very reasonable. The white population is very- 
hospitable and kind to strangers — the negroes 
very civil. Our physicians are considered at the 
head of the profession and their charges are very 
moderate. We have Churches of every denom- 
ination (of the Christian sect), and our pulpits 
are supplied with men of more than ordinary in- 
tellect. Our custom-house officials are very 
gentlemanly and never disturb your baggage, and 
in fact the whole community exert themselves to 
make the sojourn of the stranger pleasant. 

It is well to secure your state-room for a trip at 
least in advance, as you may be crowded out if 
you put it off until you arrive in New York. It 
is not a good plan to bring either greenbacks or 
gold. American gold brings its full value, but 
there is more or less risk in carrying it about 
with you. rfhe best plan is to get a letter of 
credit from a New York banker on their agents 
here ; if you loose it you can get a duplicate. 
Messrs, Murray, Ferris & Co., 63 South Street, 
New York, the agents of the steamer, will sell 
you sight drafts, or issue letters of credit on their 
agents if you prefer it. 

Epes Sargekt. 



From the Medical Kecoed, February 10, 1877. 
THE CLIMATE OF NASSAU. 

The therapeutical effects of climate have be- 
come a matter of increasing interest and study. 
It is of no small importance that the physician 
should have reliable data upon which to base an 
opinion as to the probable influence the climate, 
etc., of any locality is likely to exert upon his 
patients. Too often the only statistics and re- 
ports to be had are those furnished by non-pro- 
fessional and interested persons. 

There are very . few easily accessible places 
where a really dry and warm winter climate may 
be enjoyed. The sanitaria of our Atlantic coast 
and of the West Indies are all more or less hu- 
mid. Other influences characterize particularly 
the resorts in Florida, which detract froin their 
comfort as winter residences. Cold north-easterly 
winds, laden with moisture, and even frost, naay 
surprise the northern sojourner in most parts of 
Florida during any of the winter months, and 
unpleasantly remind one of the lack of home 
comforts and protection against bad weather. 

It ie only recently that the attention of the 
public has been directed to a locality now easily 
accessible, where violent or even moderate fluc- 
tuations of the temperature are rare, and frost is 
never known. 

The Bahama Islands, lying entirely to the 
eastward of the Gulf Stream, have a range of 
550 miles, from northwest to southeast, north 
latitude 30° 55' to 37° 31', and west longitude 73'^ 
40' to 79° 05'. Some of the islands possess unusu- 
al interest to the historian and to the naturalist, 
but it is chiefly of New Providence and the capi- 
tal city of the group upon it, Nassau, that we 
shall speak, and of its claims as a winter resi- 
dence for the invalid and pleasure-seeker. It lies 
in latitude 35° 5' north, and longitude 77° 30' 
west. It is of small extent, being about seven- 
teen miles long by seven wide, with an area of 



eighty-five square miles; but little of it is culti- 
vated, the surface being thickly covered vnth a 
luxuriant, semi-tropical vegetation. * * * * 
There is quite a forest of pines — the Pinus 
Bahumiends — in the middle of the island; and 
here, as elsewhere, the visitor is astonished at 
the immense number of orchids — mostly varieties 
of epiphytes — which cling to the branches. The 
botanist from the States may revel in a new flora, 
with hardly a familiar species to remind him of 
home. ************* 

The drinking water is of two kinds — that 
from reservoirs, being stored rain-water collected 
from the roofs of houses; and that from wells. 
The former only is generally used by the well- 
to do white population, exclusively so at the 
hotel, and is an unusually good potable water. * * 

The surface drainage of the city is excellent. 
Water soon disappears, either through the gut- 
ters cut in the stone — which, by the way, are 
very good — at the roadside, or by percolation. It 
would hardly be possible to find a stagnant pool 
of any kind. The streets are very neat, and as 
both the narrow sidewalks and the carriage-ways, 
are cut on the native rock, and are equally hard 
and clean, it is more customary to walk on the 
latter than the former. All the roads throughout 
the island are of the same character, constructed 
by the government, and kept in repair by convict 
labor. There is no dust. 

The mean temperature during the winter 
months is somewhat higher than at other health 
resorts, as is shown by the following compari- 
sons : 



Place. 



Nassau, N. P 

Savannah, Ga 

Jacksonville, Fla. . . 
St. Augustine, Fla. 

Pilatka, Fla 

San Diego, Cal 



Not. 


Dec. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


76.8 


73.6 


73.6 


73.7 


75.4 


58.6 


51.5 


53.2 


54.5 


60.4 


64.1 


54.3 


06.4 


56.1 


64.3 


64.1 


57.3 


57.0 


59.9 


63.3 


61.5 


56.0 


57.3 


58.3 


64.1 


56.9 


51.7 


)1.9 


53.3 


56.0 



April 



76.1 
67.7 
67.8 
68.8 
71.3 
61.3 



But the average mean temperature of a month 
may be quite deceptive. It is the diurnal and 
from day to day fluctuations which are of the 
greatest importance and have the most influence 
upon the health of invalids. In this particular 
Nassau has an advantage over any locality on the 
Atlantic side of the continent. 

No other place we know of so well fulfills the 
requirements of a winter sanitarium in this 
respect as Nassau. ********* 

The Royal Victoria Hotel is perhaps superior 
to any in the South in its hygienic appointments, 
and is equaled by few anywhere. Its table is 
supplied with excellent food, well prepared. 

To briefly recapitulate : From November to 
April, Nassau has a warm and remarkably equa- 
ble climate. 

It has a moderate degree of humidity. 

Its surface is well covered with vegetation. 

Its drainage, chiefly by subsidence into the 
rock, is good 

Its stored drinking water is ample in supply, 
and healthful. 

It is quite free from malarious and other en- 
demic diseases. 



28 



NASSAU, JV. P. 



[Extracts from letters from Hon. C. L. MaoAethub.] 
"BAHAMA BUBBLES."— LIFE IN NASSAU. 



[Editor's Correspondence of the Troy Budget.] 



AEEIVED. 

Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, Wednes- 
day, March. 8. — We arrived here yesterday morn- 
ing at nine o'clock, having left Savannah on 
Saturday, at 2 p. m. , in 

THE STEAMER 
which leaves Savannah every ten days for Nassau. 
She is admirably adapted for this route. The ap- 
pointments of the vessel are all complete and 
first-class for the comfort of passengers, and the 
table is superior to that of most vessels that I 
have been on along the American coast. Purser 
WiLDMAN and the steward are unremitting in 
their efforts to make the voyage pleasant. When 



SUPERB EISHING 
all about Nassau and the outlying islands. The 
water is beautifully clear and transparent, and 
with the aid of a water-glass it is claimed that 
the sands, shells, fish, coral and submarine plants 
may be seen at the bottom to the depth of some 
seventy feet. I reserve for future letters a de- 
scription of our hotel, 

THE ROYAL VICTORIA, 

which is admirably kept. It is a model of neat- 
ness throughout, first-class in everything, with 
very moderate charges. Last night, sitting in 
the open air in its front, with the odors of orange 
blossoms wafted on the genial air, the evening 
hours were whiled away in listening to the mel- 
odies and string-music ground out by groups of 
darkey minstrels. Mac. 



ON THE CONSTANT GO. 
Nassau, New Providence, March 16.- 



-We have 




A LITTLE COVE AT NASSAT. 



we arrived at the Royal Victoria Hotel yesterday 

THE THERMOMETER ■ , 

stood at 74 degrees, and it does not vary more 
than four or five degrees from this during the 
twenty-four hours of the day, or for the week. 
The daily average of the thermometer for March 
ranges from 72 the lowest, to 79 the highest. As 
I write, from my window can be seen masses of 

DELICIOUS VERDURE, 
overflowing from walled gardens and grounds on 
all sides, wherein orange trees loaded witli both 
fruit and blossoms, palm trees, silk cotton trees 
in full pod and leaf, cactus, crape myrtle, tube- 
rose, jasmine, geraniums, etc., are prominent in 
the foreground. There are oleanders every- 
where — here it is an outdoor tree — covered with 
a prof usion of red, white, pink, scarlet, and vari 
egated flowers. They grow thirty feet high, and 
are always in blossom. Nearly all the flowers 
here are perennial, and the landscape is profusely 
dotted with tlieir charming shades and glows. 
This is tlie home of the night-blooming cereus. 
There is an infinite variety of roses liere in the 
full bloom of their pristine beauty. There is 



been in this delightful winter resort for eight 
days, during which time w« have been on the 
constant go, the time gliding by as if propelled 
by the wings of birds of paradise. The ceaseless 
activity generated by a Northern clime has gW- 
ually given way to the lazy indolence of tropical 
life. We don't rush at activities with the hun- 
gry vigor we did 6n first landing, but take things 
much easier. If there is any overworked Trojan 
who wants to learn to be absolutely lazy, let him 
come to the Bahamas immediately. 

DREAMY REPOSE , 

is the normal state of human existence here, and 
it is astonishing to see how quick our Northern- 
ers drop into the doles far niente life that prevails 
here generally. There is enough to do, however, 
in the sporting and amusement line, if one so 
desires. Fine fishing, sailing over crystal waters 
through a magnificent bay, excursions to the 
neighboring islands, beautiful drives, and all the 
diversions of refined and hospitable social life 
mvite the sojourner to their enjoyment. We saw 
on this day, and at other times, that most remark- 
able of all growths. 



NASSAU, N. P. 



29 



THE BANYAN TREE. 
Its main limbs are usually fifteen or twenty feet 
from the earth, and after they have grown out 
horizontally from the trunk some twenty or thirty 
feet, the branches turn down to the earth, taking 
root and forming a column as support for its 
parent branch as well as another tree of itself. 
Some of these trees form vast circles with col- 
umns supporting dense leafy roofs. It is a very 
curious tree, furnishing friendly shade, ever ex- 
tending by new trunks, ever widening its circle 
by its tops striking down and taking root, and 
every new growth and stem being still a part of 
the parent tree to which it is ligamented as were 
the Siamese twins. If there is any such thing as 
an earthly, 

DKEAMY, SENSUOUS PARADISE, 
I should think it might be found under a banyan 
tree in the delicious midwinter climate of Nassau. 
This leafy paradise should be enjoyed in a ham- 
mock swung from the banyan's branches. You can 
get a very good manilla hammock for fifty cents. 
A delicious cigar, such as is found here, will help 
to intensify the tropical felicity. If that don't 
do it, the Cannabis Indica grows within sight, 
from which is derived the famous hasheesh, 
which is the king of all narcotics in weaving a 
dreamy spell about its votaries. The air will be 
spiced with the fragrance of the pimento of com- 
merce, for here grows the tree. If you want to' 
take a dose of medicine prior to taking your ban- 
yan tree siesta, here's the spot where thfe drug 
can be easiest had. Here grows from the sands 
of the sea-shore the dear friend of our earlier 
youth, old squills. He's a lily like plant with a 
bulbous root like an onion, and by his side is the 
companion of our later growth, ipecac, who 
never failed in hours of agony to come to our 
relief when squills were in vain. If you would 
dispel yoiir malady with none of these, then 
reach out and pluck the Castor Bean, whose 
genial juice in the shape of Castor oil is familiar 
to juvenile days. Castor oil isn't a bad beverage 
in this its native clime. We know a person who 
was persuaded to take a dose of it and found it 
very pleasant and effective. Two drops were 
taken in a pint of sherry, and I recommend all 
invalids to take it that way. But as we dreamily 
open our eyes from our siesta in the hammock 
under the banyan tree shade, let our gaze fall 
on something'' more delightful to the senses. 
Very well, yonder are * 

THE FEATHERY TOPS ' 

of the cocoa palm loaded with green cocoa nuts. 
Bring us one of those green cocoas and open its 
soft shell, and we shall have from " the milk in 
the cocoa nut " a delicious drink fit for the gods. 
Higher still than the cocoa palm does the royal 
palm, the king of all the palms, send its noble 
tops far up in the tropical ether. Crouching- 
lower down grows the cinnamon tree, most de- 
lightfully aromatic of all the restorative spiced. 
Here, too, the pleased eyes fall on all the green 
and golden fruits of 

"THE ORCHARDS OP THE HESPERIDES." 

There's the cashew, sweet and sour sops, all the 
oranges, lemon and citric growths, star apples, 
seaside and other grapes, watermelons, Spanish 
and cocoa plums, mammee, plaintain, banana, 
love in a mist, guava, tamarind, custard apple, 



bread fruit, Spanish fig, shaddock, rose apples, 
pomegranates, dates, balsam apple, mulberry, 
jujube, papaw, and I can't tell the reader how 
many more. Keturning to the hotel we passed 
numerous 

GROVES OF COCOA TREES, 
loaded with clusters of cocoa nuts almost ripe. A 
grove of cocoa trees is one of the most picturesque 
and pleasant features of a Bahama landscape. Re- 
turning by a road that skirts the beach, in the in- 
land direction near by was a range of hills that 
slope up about ninety feet above the level of the 
sea. Nassau lies at the foot of a portion of this 
range, and spreads back from the sea to the sum- 
mit of the hills. 

We arrived back at our hotel in the 

DELICIOUS COOL OF THE EVENING, 
the thermometer standing at about 70 degrees. 
While we have been here the range of the ther- 
mometer has been from 69 to 76 degrees. At 
this season it rarely varies more than four 
or five degrees in twenty-four hours. The 
days are bright and beautiful, for a couple of 
weeks there has been no rain, and the nights are 
brilliant and sparkling with the glow and flame 
of tropical skies. Low down in the horizon the 
•famous constellation of ■ 

THE SOUTHERN CROSS 
flames and glows with tropical brilliance. We 
sat up late o' nights to catch the first fires of its 
flame in the far South, and got up in the early 
hours before the breaking of the dawn to gaze on 
its radiance as seen from the observatory of the 
Royal Victoria Hotel. 

EVENING SHADES AND MORNING GLOWS. 
While the evenings are beautiful, still more de- 
lightful are the mornings, when the sun first 
"opes the gates of day." Then the landscape 
looks delightfully fresh and green, and the air is 
redolent of all the flowers and odors of "Araby 
the blest." In the rising glories of the morn. it 
seemed as if 

" The Queen of the Spring as she passed in full sail. 
Left her robe on the trees and her breath on the gale." 

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT 
on the observatory of the Victoria Hotel, while 
you are watching for the Southern Cross to 
straighten itseilf up on the rim of the southern 
horizon, is a thing long to be remembered and 
cherished, especially if enjoyed under favorable 
auspices. Up high in the heavens is the chaste 
mild moon coursing her silent journey on through 
the dazzling ether, pouring down a flood of sil- 
very radiance. Yonder is the crystal bay, its 
waters gleaming with diamond, opalescent and 
phosphorescent flames, under the glow of the 
pale moonlight. Lights are dancing on the rip- 
pling waves, as yachts and pleasure boats spread 
their wings to the gently moving breeze. There's 
Hog Island, (Ida Greeley gave it the more poetic 
name of Porcina,) with its green and emerald 
crown, quietly and dreamily sleeping in the 
white haze beyond the bay; and beyond that, 
stretching away until sea and sky blend in the 
harmonious horizon, lies the ocean, its waves 
breaking in dreamy murmurings on the island 
beach. Intermediate between your lookout in 
the observatory and the bay, peep out the white 
roof tops of Nassau dwellings and church and 
cathedral spires, the tall cocoa and silk cotton, 



3° 



NASSAU, N. P. 



trees blending their beautiful green tops ,witli 
the diamond-peaked roofs of tlie town. It is a 
waving sea of verdure diversified by islands of 
white roofs. Still 

SWEEPING THE HORIZON 

with the eye, the white monumental outline of 
the light-house stands sentry at the junction of 
bav and ocean, in the northwest, plumb \ip 
against the deep blue wall of the sky. On the 
\vest of the government house looms up from the 
verdure of feather palm-tree tops; and beyond 
that, on the hill range, looking in the moonlight 
like an old ruin on the Rhine, stands Fort Char- 
lotte, hallowed by the memory of the Earl of 
Dunmore, memorably connected with our Ameri- 
can Revolutionary struggle, who built it about 
/ 1788, just as our United States were in the first 
vears of that infant nationality which our victo- 
rious arms had wrung from one of the Georges 
Avhose Queen this fort was named in honor of. 
Towering above the sea of foliage, here and there 
are Royal African Palms, the monarchs of all the 
palm-tree kind. In front of the government 
house, peeping out from the foliage of tropical 
trees, may be seen the white statue of Columbus, 
modeled by the aid of our own Washington 
IiiviNG, who was in London at the time of its' 
conception. To the southwest some three miles 
distant gleam the crystal waters of the Lake of 
Killarney. In the same direction the blue hills 
of New Providence pencil their outlines against 
the sky. On the hills to the east stands Fort 
Fincastle, a jjrominent feature in the landscape. 
"Swinging around the circle" still farther to 
the east and north, the vision again takes in the 
outlying waters of the bay, which are gemmed 
with several small verdure-covered islands sur- 
rounded by crystal waters, like emeralds sur- 
rounded by diamond settings. Our notes men- 
tion the fact that while taking in the 

ENJO'SMENT OF THIS OUTLOOK 
from Victoria's top by moonlight, "there was a 
sound of revelry by night " on that occasion, and 
"music rose with its voluptuous svvell," and 
the Consul told stories of stump campaigning in 
New York and Ohio, and repeated most admira- 
bly T. Buchanan Read's poem of "Drifting," 
most appropriate to the time and scene ; and alto- 
gether there was a very good time. That night's 
experience is a fragrant leaf on which is recorded 
in life's book one of the most delicious memories 
of Nassau. Mac. 



From New Ricmedie«, February, 1877, by F. A. Castle, M. D' 
Editor. 

THE BAHAMAS AS A HEALTH-RESORT. 



A TKii* comlnning motives both of business 
and of pleasure led us, in the early part of the 
winter, to visit a group of islands lying about 
thirty hours' sail to the (eastward of Florida, 
known as tlie Bahamas. ******** 

To reach the Bahamas is by no means difficult, 
for during the season a steamer leaves Pier 10, East 
ItTver , every week, going either direct, or stopping 
it Savannali on the way, and tlie traveller hasthe 
choice of a trip of live days by sea or a ride in 
tlie cars to Savannah, and a shorter voyage of 
about forty hours from there. 



For some persons the first would be advisable, 
and such can be assured that the steamers of the 
line are carefully sailed and well supplied. Both 
in going and coming, the writer made the trip by 
sea the whole distance, and the attention and 
carefulness of the officers was a subject of grate- 
ful comment. The lower portion of the route is 
generally made in smooth water, and the motion 
is not disagreeable. The trip by way of Savan- 
nah has the advantage of being almost entirely 
limited to the smooth water, so that persons who 
suffer much from sea-sickness, and do not require 
the voyage as a part of their treatment, can 
usually reach the islands without discomfort. 
********** 

In those forms of lung trouble where there is 
profuse expectoration and perspiration, we should 
hardly think of recommending patients to visit 
the Bahamas. But in the early stages of chronic 
pneumonia and catarrhal pneumonia, in tubercu- 
losis, convalescence from acute diseases, in mala- 
rial affections, and in exhaustion from over-work 
and worry, the advantage of being able to live, 
if necessary, out of doors, without the fatigue of 
heavy clothing ; the comparative freedom from 
risk of catching cold, and the purity of the at- 
mosphere, render this one of the most healthful 
as 'Cvell as available resorts of which we have any 
knowledge. 



(New York Evangelist, March 30.) 

NASSAU IN THE BAHAMAS. 
By Eev. Nelson Millakd, D. D. 



Nassau, N. P., March 14, 1876. 

Editor Evangelist : — As I write the date at the 
head of this letter, I recall that it is two months 
to a day since we landed at Nassau. Although 
it was a January morning, our judgments need- 
ed to correct our senses, in order to believe that 
it was not a June afternoon. Indeed, one soon 
comes to feel in tropical and semi-tropical climes 
that Tennyson might have called not only the 
fabled home of his Lotus Eaters, but many an 
actual region, " a land where it was always after- 
noon ; " for in these realms of sun and palm a 
dreamy, afternoon softness suffuses, almost per- 
petually, scene and sea and sky. And yet they are 
flooded, too, with a splendor and a glory un- 
known to our more sombre Northern climes. 
The midday, in its overflowing brilliance, makes 
one feel as if, according to Milton's superb ex- 
pression, " another morn had risen on mid-noon." 
The very ocean loses its Northern aspect of gray 
sombreness or monotonous blue, and is here 
dashed and permeated with ever varying colors, 
as if it had caught and imprisoned some of the 
rays of the many thousand suns that have sunk 
into its bosom, or the iris hues of the rainbows that 
have spread their glories over its ' ' mirrors large 
and round." 

Until one has become accustomed to their 
strangeness, the novelty of these regions chal- 
lenges the Northern eye fully as much as their 
beauty. The questions that rose earliest and in- 
voluntarily to our lips, were, " Can this be a part 
of the same earth we have always known, or have 
we reached the shores of a new and more beauti- 
ful planet?" The first experience here, I think, 



NASSAU, N. P. 



31 



of any one accustomed to our less luxuriant lati- 
tudes, would be that of being surrounded by a 
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
not, indeed, perfect righteousness, but where 
beauty, balminess, and bloom find their perpetual 
home. 

All the islands of this Bahama group are of cor- 
al origin. Fertile by virtue of soil, the Bahamas 
are not ; for like most coral islands, they have but 
a thin covering of earth. But vegetation here per- 
forms the prodigy once attributed to the chamele- 
on — it lives on air. At least let it obtain but some 
little hold in the pores, or along the disintegrat- 
ing surface, of the coral rocks, and an atmosphere 
which never knows frosts seems to compel it to 
grow. Unlike the seed in the Parable of the 
Sower, which fell where there was ' ' no deep- 
ness of earth," it does not wither away; but nour- 
ished by what may be fairly called 9l fertile air, it 
comes to bloom and fruitage in the orange, 
or waves long plumes and bannerets in the palm. 

The year at the Poles has, it is said, but one 
day; so here, we may say, it has but one season. 
For in a land where the thennometer's midday 
marking averages seventy-five degrees in Janu- 
ary, and eighty-five degrees in August, it is evi- 
dent that the seasons are little more than a 
name. Certainly Nassau needs only to be known 
to become the great resort of those who desire to 
exchange for six months of the year Northern 
snows for Southern suns. It is the climate of 
climates; so say travelled invalids, of whom one 
naturally meets many here. As equable in tem- 
perature as St. Croix, it is not so uncomfortably 
warm; as balmy as Egypt, it is for inhabitants 
of the United States much nearer at hand. Bud- 
den cJiangets of temperature, which are the bane 
of most winter resorts, are here unknowq. The 
"northers," which bring nipping frosts to the 
orange groves of Florida, and which even at Ha- 
vana send people shivering indoors, signify here 
only a decline in the thermometer's midday mark 
from seventy-five to seventy degrees. Most of 
the time the days roll on in a nearly unvarying- 
warmth, in a seldom interrupted sunshine, and 
with an almost constant trade-wind breeze. Such 
a climate, if resorted to in time, often works with 
wondrously curative power upon affections of the 
throat, bronchia and lungs— as, in the case of 
bronchitis, I can testify from personal experience. 
And in such a climate there is, especially during 
the less heated part of the year, but very little 
indigenous sickness. Indeed, from November to 
May there is scarcely any sickness in Nassau, 
save what comes here to be cured. 

In this connection I must not omit to add that 
the hospitality of the inhabitants is as warm and 
genial as their clime. The polite cordiality ex- 
tended to non-residents makes them forget they 
are strangers in a strange land. 

About all the religious denominations that 
would be met with at the North, in a city 



of 10,000 inhabitants, have organizations here. 

A hotel so well kept as the Royal Victoria at 
Nassau, deserves a word of mention before I 
close. It can challenge comparison with any 
throughout the Southern States or West Indies, 
having few equals, and no superior, among them 
all. 

On the whole, let me say, (if it be not too nearly 
an Irish bull), that if one is compelled at some 
period of his life to have an experience of hiber- 
nation, let him have it in this land of perpetual 
Summer. If one m,ust rest, Nassau is an earthly 
Paradise ; but far more attractive than rest in 
any earthly Eden, is the prospect of a return, 
upon the accession of Summer weather at the 
North, to Syracuse, to home, and to the Master's 
work. 



" R. O. B.," a passenger by the October 
steamer, writes to the Home Journal, Nov. 
14, as follows: 

Nassau, Oct., , 1877. 

* * * * There is so much to attract and 
charm one in these tropical islands, that one is 
not surprised at the enthusiasm expressed by 
Columbus to his sovereigns in the following sen- 
tences attributed to him: — "The loveliness of 
these new lands is like that of the Campiiia de 
Cordoba. The trees are all covered with ever 
verdant foliage and perpetually laden with fruits 
and flowers. The plants on the ground are full 
of blossoms. These breezes are like those of 
April in Castille. The nightingales " (he was 
probably thinking of the mocking-birds) "sing 
more sweetly than I can describe. * * * * 
It seems to me as if I could -never quit a spot so 
delightful; as if a thousand tongues would fail to 
describe it ; as if the spell-bound hand would 
refuse to write." It is to be expected that the 
breast of an explorer would glow with an en- 
thusiasm not to be awakened in an invalid exiled 
from the social gayeties and other metropolitan 
delights of a New York winter ; but when, last 
December, we stood for the first time on the 
broad balcony of the hotel, and looked at the 
charming picture spread before us, and con- 
trasted the delicious, equable climate with the 
frosty, murderous one we had left behind, at 
least we understood the frame of mind in which 
Christopher Columbus had written. 

One is enchanted at every turn in Nassau with 
charming effects in color. The foliage is in 
every shade of green, and has all the lightness, 
freshness, and transparency that one finds in 
early spring at home, united with the richest and 
densest verdure of the tropics. This, under a 
cloudless sky of the loveliest azure, and against 
walls tinged like the vermilion towers of the 
Alhambra, with glimpses of the sea thrown in, 
ad libitum, makes a combination of color that is 
the despair of the artist. ******* 



For Itinerary of SteamsMp Routes and Excursion Trips, also The Royal Victoria Hotel, see 

next pages. 



ITINERARY. 



The Service for the Winter of 1877-8 will be performed as 
follows : 

The new Screw Steamship Carondelet, 1,500 tons burden, will 
leave New York, monthly, for Nassau direct, thence to Santiago and 
Cienfuegos, Cuba, returning to Nassau and New York. 

The first-class Iron Side-wheel Steamship San Jacinto, 1,400 
tons burden, (well-known as the favorite ship of the N. Y. & Savan- 
nah line), will leave Savannah every other Tuesday, calling at St* 
Augustine, and leaving there on Wednesday, thence to Nassau and 
thence to Havana, returning same route. 

Passengers can purchase tickets and leave New York by the 
direct ship for Nassau, avoiding all changes; or can take one of the 
new steamships of the Savannah line for Savannah, making close 
connection with the ' ship from Savannah ; or can proceed, by 
Railroad, to Savannah ; or If they wish to reduce the sea voyage 
to a minimum, can proceed to St. Augustine by Rail, then taking 
the Steamship San Jacinto on her arrival from Savannah, the dis- 
tance from St. Augustine to Nassau being but about 320 miles. 

Through tickets will be Issued by either route entitling passen- 
gers to stop over In Nassau, and proceed at their leisure to Havana, 
Santiago, or Cienfuegos, or round trip tickets, at reduced rates, to 
return via St. Augustine, and thence by all Rail ; or to Savannah, 
and thence by Steamer or Rail to the North, stopping at points 
mentioned. 



COMBINATION OF EXCURSION TOURS 

—TO— 

Florida, Nassau & Havana, 

AND THE SOUTH SIDE OF CUBA, 

FOR WHICH TICKETS CAN BE SUPPLIED BY THE AGENTS OF THE 
— AND — 

SAVAMAH, N-ASSAU & HAVANA MAIL S. S. LINE. 

EXCURSION No. 1. 

New York to Nassau and Return. — Take S. S. Carondelet direct to Nassau and return 
by same route. Time between Ports, 4:^4, days. $90.00. 

EXCURSION No. 2. 

New York to Nassau and Ueturn.— Take S. S. Carondelet direct to Nassau; return by 
S. S. San Jacinto to St. Augustine, tlience Savannah, thence by Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday 
Steamer to New York. $90.00. 

EXCURSION No. 3. 

New York to Nassau and Return.— Take Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday Steamer, New 
York to Savannah; thence by S. S. San Jacinto to St. Augustine, thence to Nassau, and return by 
S. S. Carondelet direct to New York. $90.00. 

EXCURSION No. 4. 

New York to Nassau and Return.— Take Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday Steamer, New 
York to Savannah; thence by S. S. San Jacinto to St. Augustine, thence by S. S. San Jacinto to 
St. Augustine; thence to Nassau, and return by S. S. San Jacinto to St. Augustine and Savannah, 
thence Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday Steamer to New York. $95.00. 

EXCURSION No. 5. 

New York to Nassau, Havana, Florida and Return.— Take S. S. Carondelet, New 
York to Nassau; S. S. San Jacinto, Nassau to Havana; thence return to Nassau, St. Augustine, 
and Savannah; thence Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday Steamer to New York. $130.00. 

EXCURSION No. 6. 

New York to Florida, Nassau, Havana, Cienfuegos, Nassau, New York.— Take Tues- 
day, Thursday or Saturday Steamer, New York to Savannah; thence S. S. San Jacinto, Savannah 
to St. Augustine, thence to Nassau, thence to Havana, thence by rail Havana to Cienf uegos, thence 
S. S. Carondelet, Nassau, and return to New York. $ 

EXCURSION No. 7. 
New York to Nassau, (N. P.), Santiago, Cienpuegos and Havana, (Cuba), Nassau 
Florida, New York.— Take S. S. Carondelet to Nassau, thence to Santiago and Cienfuegos, 
Railroad to Havana, thence S. S. San Jacinto to Nassau, thence to St. Augustine, thence to Sa- 
vannah, thence by Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday's Steamer to New York. $ 

Any of above Excursions via Savannah and St. Augustine, can be arranged to be used via 
Georgia and Florida Inland Steamboat Company from Savannah to Tocoi, (calling at St. Mary's, 
Brunswick, Ga. ; Feruandina, Fort George, Jacksonville, Green Cove Springs, Florida,) thence by 
St. John's Railway to St. Augustine, thus including the sail on St. John's River. From Havana, 
any point in West Indies can be conveniently reached. At Santiago connection is made with Mail 
Steamer for Kingston, Jamaica; from thence there is mail Steamship communication to all points 
in the West Indies. 

SIDE TOURS from St. Augustine to Enterprise and return. Also from St. Augustine to 
Silver Springs (Ocklawaha River), and return, and from St. Augustine to New Smyrna, (Indian 
River), and return, can be procured at lowest rates on application to Agents. 

Arrangements are now being made for Excursion Tickets by various rail Lines from New 
York, Boston and Philadelphia, and all principal points in the West to Savannah, thence to 
St. Augustine, Nassau, Havana, etc., or vice versa, regarding which. Agents can give particular 
information. 

MURRAY, FERRIS & CO., Agents, 62 South 3t., New York. 

HUNTER & G-AMMELL, " Savannah. 

R. F. ARMSTRONG, Agent, St. Augustine. 

A. M. BECK, So. Passenger Agent, Jacksonville, Fla. 

G-USTAYE LEVE, Gen, Pass. Agent, 271 Broadway, New York. 



ROYAL VICTORIA 

HOTEL, 



The Royal Victoria Hotel was built by the Government in i860, to meet the demands of iriva- 
lids and others seeking to avail themselves of the peculiar natural advantages offered by Nassau 
for a winter residence, and neither pains nor expense was spared in answering the requirements 
of the most modern and scientific theories of architecture. 

The building is of limestone — four stories high ; each of the three first stories being sur- 
rounded by a piazza ten feet wide, forming an uninterrupted promenade of over one thousand 
feet in extent — affording to those unable to withstand the fatigue of out-door exercise, perfect facil- 
ities for enjo)'ing the fine scenery and refreshing breezes. The rooms are large and perfectly venti- 
lated; those of the first, second and third stories being provided with French casements, opening 
on the piazza, and each door and window having a fan-light. The house is provided with bath- 
rooms and other modern improvements. The tanks for rain water exceed 300,000 gallons in 
capacity; while spring water is forced through the building from a fine well on the premises. 
The parlors are large and conveniently situated. The dining room will seat one hundred and 
fifty persons comfortably. Sea bathing is conveniently near the house, and salt water baths, either 
in the bathing rooms or private apartments, can be furnished at all times. 




The Hotel has recently changed hands, the present proprietors being 

Mellen, Conover & King. 

Mr. A. L. Mellen, and the superintendent, H. L. Hoyt, have been for the past two years con- 
nected with the Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga. Mr. A. H. King, of this firm, can be consulted 
as to particulars, during the entire season, at 115 Broadway, New York, where plans of the house 
can be seen and rooms engaged. 

The table will be of unsurpassed excellence, furnished with the choicest meats, game and 
vegetables from Fulton Market, New York, together with the fish and turtles from the markets of 
Nassau, which have no equal for variety and quality ; all of which will be prepared for the table 
under the personal supervision of Mr. A. Schelscher, the well-known chef de cuisine, late of the 
Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., whose skill and thorough education entitle him to 
the foremost position among the artists of his class. 



The Terms of the Hotel have been reduced to $3.00 per day, 
American Currency. Children and Servants half price. 



The Season opens November ist, and closes May 15th. The proprietors offer ever}^ assurance 
to their guests that all possible will be done to make their stay pleasant and agreeable. 



For Florida and all Points South and Southwest. 





t:f3:-ri 




GREAT 


SOUTHERN 


ROOTE, 



PASSENGER and FREIGHT 

VIA 

NEW YORK AND SAVANNAH STEAMSHIP LINE. 




One of the following first-class Steamships will sail from New York as follows, punctually at 

3 o'clock P. M., 

EVEEY TUESDAY, THUESDAY AND SATUKDAY: 

H. Livingston, General Barnes, 

SAN SALVADOR, RAPIDAN. 

And the New and Elegant Steamships, 

CITY OF MACON AND CITY OF SAVANNAH. 

2,350 Tons Burthen each. 

The above Steamships will connect at Savannah with Central Railroad of Georgia. Two 
trains daily for all points in Middle, North and Southwest Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennes- 
see and Louisiana, and with the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, to all points in Florida, Southern 
and Middle Georgia, and with Steamers in the Chattahoochee River. Two trains daily between 
Savannah and Jacksonville, Fla. Pullman's Palace Sleeping Cars and Parlor Coaches attached to 
both trains. Also, with the Savannah, Nassau and Havana Mail Steamship Line. 

STEAMSHIP SAN JACINTO, 

Leaving Savannah Every Other Tuesday (upon the arrival of the Steamship City of Macon 
from New York), for St. Augustine, Nassau and Havana, making a most delightful Winter 
Excursion. Also with the Georgia and Florida Inland Steamboat Co.'s Steamers CITY OF 
BRIDGETON and DAVID CLARK. These boats will make close connection with the New 
York and Savannah Steamships. Their route will be through the inland passage formed by the 
Sea Islands and Coast Rivers between Savannah and the St. John's River, touching at all points on 
the St John's River. Families en route for Florida, Nassau and Havana, Georgia, Alabama, and 
even as far as New Orleans, will find the Savannah Route the most enjoyable for comfort, as well 
as saving in expense. 

The Florida Steamers leave Savannah three days in the week, for all points on the Coast. 

For Freight or Passage by ships sailing on Thursdays, from Pier i6. East River, apply to 

MtJREAY, FEERIS & CO., Agents, 62 Soutli Street. 

For Freight or Passage by ships sailing from Pier 43, North River, on Tuesdays and Satur- 
days, apply to 

aEOEQE YONGE, Agent, 409 Broadway. 



FLORIDA AND THE SOUTH ! 

VIA 

Atlantic Coast Line Fast Mail Passenger Route, 



COMPRISING 



RICHMOND & PETERSBURG; PETERSBURG, WILMINGTON & WEL- 
DON; WILMINGTON, COLUMBIA <Sc AUGUSTA; NORTH-EAST- 
ERN, CHARLOTTE, COLUMBIA & AUGUSTA; GEORGIA, 
MACON & AUGUSTA RAILROADS, 



AND CONNECTING LINES TO 




ATLANTIC 

^ 

COAST LINE 

FA.ST MAIL PASSENGER 
KOUTE 



O 

C 

X 



Charleston. Columbia, Aiken, Augusta, Port Royal, Savannah, 

Jacksonville, Tallahasse, Cedar Keys, St. Augustine, 

Nassau, Havana, See., &e., and to Macon, Atlanta, 

Columbus, Montgomery, Selma, Mobile, 

New Orleans, Galveston, &e., &e. 



The geographical position of this Line enables passengers to enjoy the influence of 
the Southern climate much earlier than by any other route between the North and South. 

Tlie Savannali, Nassau and Havana Mail Steanisliip Co.'s 

First-class line of Steamers connect Savannah with Nassau and Havana twice a 
month, touching both ways, at St. Augustine, Through tickets on sale at all Penn- 
sylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's offices in the East, to Nassau and Havana. 

The roads forming this thoroughfare have been greatly improved, the old iron 
rails being replaced with steel rails. 

Westinghouse Automatic Air Brakes on Passenger Cars. 

Parlor and Pullman Sleeping Car service perfected. 

Double daily trains between New York and Charleston, S. C. 

For reservations of Sections, Berths, Chairs, Tickets, Time-Tables, apply at the 
New York Office, 229 Broadwav, or at the authorized Ticket Offices of the Penn- 
sylvania or Baltimore &' Ohio Railroads. 

JONAH H. WHITE, Southern Passenger Agent, General Office, 229 Broadway, 
New York, will answer all communications addressed to him. 

A. POPE^ General J'asscnger and Ticket Agent. 
A. SMA W, Supt. A\ e- I'. Jt A\ B. M. SULLY, Gen. Supt. F. R. R. 

Nov. 19, 1877. 



TOIIST, INTALID AND PLEISIE TRAVEL 



— TO- 



I^LORID A., 

NASSAU AND HAVANA. 



THE OLD ESTABLISHED AND RELIABLE 

GREAT SOUTHERN MAIL ROUTE, 



FROM 



Boston, New York, Pliiladelptiia, Baltimore & Washington, 

VIA 

LYNCHBURG, BRISTOL, DALTON, 

TO 

Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans, 

ALL POINTS IN 

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, LOUISIANA & TEXAS, 

OFFERS ALSO UNSURPASSED INDUCEMENTS TO 



Pullman Car Service Entire Route. 



All Trains equipped with elegant Day Coaches, Miller's Coupler 
Platform, Air Brakes. Ample time allowed for meals at first-class 
eating houses. 

The geographical location of this Line entitles it to the foremost 
rank amongst Southern Rail Roads for 

UNRIVALED SCENERY AND HISTORICAL POINTS OF INTEREST. 

Through Trains leave New York 6:30 P. M. from Desbrosses 
Street Ferry, Pennsylvania Rail Road. Through Pullman Sleeping 
Car to Lynchburg, and Lynchburg to New Orleans. Through time, 
62 hours. For Florida points, leave New York 9 P. M. Ask for 
tickets via Washington, Lynchburg, Bristol, and insure satisfaction. 

General Office, 303 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
THOMAS PINCKNEY, General Agent, 



SCREVEN HOUSE, 

SAVANNAH, GA. 

A First-Class Hotel in all its Appointments. 



Reduced Rates, $2.50, $3 and $3.50 per day. 



R. BRADLEY, Proprietor. 



Pulaski House. 

SAVANNAH, GA. 



Reduced Rates, $2.50, $3 and $4 per Day. 



This Hotel, just opposite the Screven House, is de- 
lightfully situated on Johnson Square; having a 
Southern frontage, gives the rooms a sunny exposure. 

This Hotel has been leased this Season by its present 
Proprietor for a term of years. Very liberal expend- 
itures have been made in improvements, repairing, 
painting and renovating. It is now open to the 
traveling public as a first-class Hotel at reduced rates 

R. BRADLEY, Proprietor. 

MB 7 6. 



ST. illGlISTlNE, FLORIDA. 



Florida 




ouse. 



Remer & Crittenden, 



J. H. REMEB. 



PROPRIETORS. 



S. E. CKITTENDEN. 



First-Class in Every Respect. 

♦-♦ 

This favorably known Hotel has been thoroughly renovated — " painted inside 
and out," — and will be found one of the most comfortable houses in Florida — more 
attractive to the tourist than ever before. 

Mr. Crittenden, former Superintendent of the St. James Hotel, New York, 
and late Proprietor of the United States Hotel, Long Branch, will be glad to meet 
his Northern friends at the Florida House, and will personally administer to their 
wants. 



Carleton House, 

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA. 




Open from November ist to May ist. 



NEW BRICK HOTEL, 

PASSEN&ER ELEVATOR AND ALL MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 



FOR TERMS APPLY TO 



STIMPSON, DEVNELL & DAVIS, Proprietors, 

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA. 



When Returning from Havana, Nassau S: Florida 

Avoid the Sudden Change of Climate, and visit the 



UPLAND 





H 



> 
2 



On the Macon & Brunswick R. R. 



JOHN LINDSAY, Proprietor, 

(Also of the Fabyan House, White Mountains, N. H.) 



This is on the direct line from Jacksonville to all points North, and is 200 miles south of 
Aiken, hence the climate in the earl)'^ Spring will be found more even. 

The air of these Pine Uplands is found to have a healing virtue in all bronchial and pulmo- 
nary complaints, and is recommended by many of our most distinguished physicians. One of 
the best medical men of the State resides in our Village. 

The Mile Drive. — The Mile Drive around the Hotel Grounds, and those of Judge Bishop, 
Mr. Eastman and others, passes through this park. There are five or six longer drives to places 
of interest. The pine woods, free from undergrowth, are accessible in all directions. Excellent 
saddle and carriage horses are to be had at the livery stable in town. 



BROCK HOUSE, 

Entef\prise, 'Floi^da. 

First-Class in all Respects. 



TERMS REASONABLE. 



IBOIDIIsrEl cfei :M:cO^^:E^T^r, F^ro^^rletors, 



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